Shine a Light
The first pressing of the The Constantines' self-titled (and  Juno Award-nominated) debut (released on Three Gut Records in 2001) was  fittingly packaged so that, upon opening the red cardstock booklet, you'd  find a single strike anywhere match. In an effort to not ruin the beauty  and poignancy of a thing through over-explanation, suffice it to say that  if your relationship with rock and roll is not fundamentally a quest for  fire (elemental, transformative, consuming), you've missed the point. This  from Magnet magazine: "They're young offenders with sharpened teeth who  make grinding, literate punk with the elasti-to-explosive guitars heard on  Fugazi's "Smallpox Champion," the stark lyrical economy of a  Vonnegut-penned newspaper obituary..." And: "The Constantines are old souls  in young bodies-guys in their early 20s who sound like Joe Strummer backed  by Fugazi - making music that wakes the sleeping and the dead." Shine a  Light is The Constantines' second full-length and first for Sub Pop (Three  Gut continues as the band's home north of the border).