At first listen you are immediately hit with the Social Distortion comparison - not just the style of music, but the vocals are very reminiscent as well. "The Short End" has a sort of barroom country-punk melody while "Grounded" is injected with a much darker feel. They also cover the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" for all of you who dropped out of art school in the eighties. Track 11 is one to play for your patchouli oil/paisley pant-wearing cousin no wants to acknowledge, as it romanticizes about the "sweet smell of burning hippies." Indeed the air would be fragrant, my friends. -BL

Maximum Rock-n-Roll
April 2001
Issue #215

Not to scare anyone off who isn't into catchy, tuneful punk - this sounds a hell of a lot like RHYTHM COLLISION mixed with the best elements of the melodic hardcore-era FREEZE and the lightweight beauty of TRAVIS CUT. I know that might not sound like the most original thinkg, but by Christ, they do it well. I can't recommend this more - very catchy and hard-hitting, but pop sensibilities intact. The production and lyrics are superb as well, with most of the songs just hinting at a deep ocean of melancholy beneath the surface. But not wussy. Support these very un-punk looking guys. (RD)

Chickenhead
Sometime in 2001

You've got to have pretty big balls to call yourself punk rock in an era where boy bands rule the roost. You've got to have even bigger balls to not sound nothing like today's mainstream punk rock standard, which is Blink-182, who are a bunch of pussies. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Blatant Finger. Their debut disc, Sit & Spin, is an audio testament to their swollen gonad proclamation - 13 tracks of slightly country-fried punk rock and roll. Sit & Spin wholly embodies Blatant Finger's sound - a roughness and toughness reminiscent of early '80's Bad Religion (before they got old and started repeating themselves like old people often do). They're easily compared to Social Distortion or the Gotohells, mostly because of Tom Barrett's gravel-throated singing style. They also hit you with the same fuck-you attitude that those bands do. Quite a refreshing similarity, really, considering every other new punk act is wearing out that Green Day pop punk style to death. Sit & Spin has catchy hookys, up tempos, heavy guitars, and a song called "Burning Hippies." (God bless you boys.) It's well-honed and well-crafted, especially for a debut. Blatant Finger aren't writing goofy, stupid stories for the Total Request Live crowd. They're doing a hard-luck genre honorable justice. Not too shabby, seeing as how most new punk sucks.
- By Vinnie Baggadonuts

The Alive (2001)
'the year's best local releases that deserve another spin'

The trio's crunchy pop, a Bernie's friendly sound, is that kind of simple, brutal grace that is immediately gratifying. This the tough side of pop. It aspires to no more than loud three-chord opiates and achieves it with a wonderfully modest "fuck flashy" attitude.
- by Adam Garratt

The Alive (2001)

Sit and Spin sounds just like what one would expect from North High Street regulars Blatant Finger. It's a forceful, antagonistic sound with a structure derivative of latter-day punk, but with growling grunge-era guitar.
The album finds variety in offerings like Pins & Needles and Webster's. The first is moderate in speed-less frantic, deviating beyond the one-four-five chord progressions of standard punk. The second song burns a gaping hole where the former stood by more idly, but with somewhat dark pop-like structure. The album showcases the band's more acidic, albeit simple, black humor on Burning Hippies, and portrays something with their take on Robert Smith's fu-fu anthem Just Like Heaven.
Sit and Spin, the band's debut effort comes after three years of playing Columbus and the relative beyond. A model for working class bands, Blatant Finger has been trucking around the Midwest and East Coast of late with the likes of U.S. Bombs, Blink 182 and Weird Al Yankovic.
- by Adam Garratt