Song Of The Week: 7/15/12

Song: "A Lotta Nerve"

Artist: Allister

Album: "Before The Blackout"

Year: 2005



"A Lotta Nerve" is yet another song about a relationship that has run it's course. In fact, to the vocalist, it has come to an abrupt end, that perhaps, he didn't quite see coming. To the girl however, she basically reeled him in with lies, took his heart through dishonesty, used him for whatever she wanted to take from him, then left him like a bad dream!! You can sense his attitude is like, wow, you gotta lotta nerve to treat me this way bitch!!! Allister is a pop punk band from Chicago, Illinois that formed as a band back in 1996. Their style reminds me of bands such as Sugarcult or the Riddlin' Kids. They're punk, but with a pop flare. Allister was one of the first bands to sign with the now popular punk label, Drive-Thru Records. In 1999, they released their debut album, "Dead Ends And Girlfriends". It was the band's second release however, 2002's "Last Stop Suburbia", that sprung the band from the underground and began to garner some success. With radio friendly singles "Radio Player" and "Somewhere On Fullerton", "Last Stop Suburbia" actually reached #9 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. In 2005, Allister released their third album, "Before The Blackout" which included a cover of a Japanese pop song called "Shima Uta" which was released on the Japan version of the album. The band sang the song in Japanese. This song, along with a few other covers of Japanese songs which appeared on the 2006 EP "Guily Pleasures" led to Allister becoming extremely popular in Japan. This would lead to several tours in Japan and that country really became like a second home for the band. In 2007, Allister decided to go on a bit of a hiatus due to the fact that vocalist/guitarist Tim Rogner and his wife just had a baby and he wanted to stay close to his family. Allister would reunite in 2010 however. They signed a new record deal with Universal Japan and released their fourth studio album, "Countdown To Nowhere". Along with the band's four full length studio albums, they also put out five EP's during their sixteen year career so far. Currently, as of March 2012, Allister began working on what will be their fifth studio album. In May of 2012, Rogner stated that the new album with be called "Life Behind Machines" and it will be tentatively released by the end of summer in 2012.