Every now and then, a record comes along that defines a period of your life. Right place, right time sort of thing. This record fits the bill exactly for me and sadly, I think it’s out of print. Luckily, I picked this record up at a store in what was then the world’s biggest mall.I got Down By Law’s first record in December, 1991. It was a particularly unstable time for me. Typical teenage crap, and I felt as if my life’s foundations were built out of wet bread sticks.
This record really spoke to me. A lot of the lyrics deal with following your dreams and being true to yourself. Dave Smalley knows how to put pen to paper and produced such profound nuggets like, "In order to be good, does that mean we must be great?" from "Vision" and these hopeful words from "Dreams Away":"Hold your head up/Target their world /Just let em fly/Dreams away".
For someone who was in an existential crisis, words like those were a salve to my despair. And to satisfy my need to change the world, Smalley penned "Matt Gleason Is God". Put together a cool bass line, a catchy tune and earnest words like: "There's so much darkness in our day/Bleed the planet, kill each other freedom what a price we pay/I'd swallow all the poison to make it go away . . ." and you get one fuck of a song. To top it all of, the refrain "We've gotta go!/We're gonna see it through/Your times are calling you" inspired me to try to commit to a better world.
The words would mean shit if the music didn't rock, but thankfully Down By Law delivers. If you someone like Smalley, who cut his teeth with DYS, helped to reinvent hardcore with Dag Nasty and even found time to be All's first singer, together with the rhythm section of the Chemical People and a guitarist from Clawhammer, you've got a wicked combination. Smooth melodic hardcore with a jumpy surf beat is a decent description, me thinks.
Image is from protonet.ru
"Best Friends" is a cover of song by The Outlets. The blog "Rocket Science" has the original for download.
1. Right or Wrong
2. Vision
3. Dreams Away
4. Down the Drain
5. American Dream
6. The Truth
7. Best Friends
8. Matt Gleason is God
9. The One
10. Can't See It Still
11. Surf Punk
12. Too Much Grey
Download it here! Down By Law
Urban Assault, the name that was so cool to early eighties hardcore folks that two bands (two!) took it as their moniker; one from San Francisco and the other from Reno. The Reno one put out a demo and was on a few comps as well. Their problem, to paraphrase an old review of a Reno comp, was that they suffered from the typical Skeeno problems of poor production. 
Smoking hardcore from the American dong state, Florida. Lots of the lyrics are impossible to understand, but on rippers like “Shamade”, it matters little. Actually, it makes the song better. The one song you can hear the words is “Mixed Up World”, their cover of Madonna’s “Material World”. Their version is priceless as they tear the material girl's song to shreds with over the top vocals and the occasional spazzy part, making you realize you can't put a price on this, umm, material.
I got this CD as a freebie when I ordered the S.C.U.M. Born Too Soon reissue from Sonik's Chicken Shrimp Records. From what I gather, it’s long out of print. That’s a shame, since this CD includes Genetic Control’s 7”, which is one mighty slab o’ wax. When I first heard First Impressions, I just about jumped out of my dumpster dived chair and slammed danced with my empty bottles of liquor.
