BAND DISCOVERED
To mark the 35th anniversary of Fat Wreck Chords, Lagwagon’s album Hoss has once again been given a reissue treatment. Since I only owned the album on CD, I couldn’t resist this time and finally picked up the vinyl edition. Hoss had already been reissued back in 2011. Originally released in 1995, the album became a milestone of the punk scene and certainly gave Lagwagon another major push forward. After Duh in 1992 and Trashed in 1994 had laid the foundation and firmly established the band as an indispensable part of the skate punk scene, Hoss further cemented their status. In 2004, singer Joey Cape also gave Violins and Move The Car a now-legendary acoustic treatment. The cover artwork has achieved legendary status as well, featuring Hoss Cartwright, the character played by Dan Blocker in the classic TV series Bonanza. I first discovered Lagwagon through my old friends from the village I grew up in – the guys I spent my teenage years hanging out with. One of them had Duh on CD, and whenever we got together, we worked our way through all those punk bands from the early ’90s: Lagwagon, Pennywise, Gorilla Biscuits, No Fun At All, Millencolin, No Use for a Name, Venerea, Satanic Surfers, 59 Times the Pain, and, of course, the Fat Wreck Chords and Cheap Shots compilations that seemed to be playing at every party.