168 By Myself & Damaged Again cassette
168 is a solo project out of Houston, Texas, with Ryan Preble-Gaitz handling absolutely every aspect: writing, performing, recording, mixing, and mastering. That’s an incredibly impressive undertaking, especially considering the sheer scope of this release. This cassette clocks in at roughly 90 minutes long, consisting of two very long LP-length recordings, one on each side of the tape. It’s an enormous amount of music to throw at a listener, especially when it spends so much time hopping between genres. But before I start complaining, there is a lot here worth celebrating. The coolest thing about 168 is how genuine it feels. There isn’t an ounce of posturing here. It feels like someone making exactly the kind of music they want to make, simply because they love punk, not because they’re trying to impress anyone. When 168 sticks to its strengths, it is legitimately good. The ’80s USHC-worship is convincing without feeling like a carbon copy. The guitar tone on the instrumental surf tracks is perfect, making the songs feel pretty damn timeless. Even some of the novelty street punk songs, mostly centered around aging and laughing at yourself, are entertaining, funny, and surprisingly memorable. Across this tape, I counted fourteen songs that I would call anywhere from solid to genuinely great. Sounds like a glowing review, right? Well, there are 47 songs on this cassette. Yes, I understand it’s technically two full-length albums bundled together, but that doesn’t make it feel any less exhausting. Whatever happened to leaving people wanting more? Even if you think your songs are all incredible, do you really believe each of these albums needed to run more than twice the length of The Crew by 7 SECONDS? My biggest problem isn’t even with the runtime, it’s the constant detours. Pop punk, screamo, acoustic songs, mandolin-driven folk-punk, atmospheric noise, novelty sea shanties…it’s as if the project refused to leave a single musical impulse unexplored. The frustrating part is that the great material is buried under so much of the merely okay and outright forgettable. When all is said and done, 168 is an impressive project whose output is mostly simply not for me. The high points are high enough that I’m probably going to make myself a new tape with just the songs I enjoyed and see how they flow on their own.