Frontier Trust – Speed Nebraska
The line between country music and hardcore punk has long been present, whether strung tight and held high or hidden deep in a tangential musical thread. The American hardcore that flourished in small towns in the ’80s was often played by musicians with absolutely no musical training, an the music of their childhood–be it country, blues, or big-time classic rock–shone through their scabby hardcore belligerence like a mother’s pie cooling on a windowsill.
But hey, now it’s the ’90s, and bands like Frontier Trust, from Omaha, Nebraska, are doing more than unwittingly responding to their instincts. They’re embracing them, and tying a firm knot between thick-fisted guitar punk and wanglin’ country twang. Frontier Trust’s version of “Jackson,” featuring Mercy Rule’s vocalist Heidi on shared lead vocal, is sloppy but fun and vivacious. “Willa Cather Proud” is a forcefullly delivered missive about outsiders and insiders in their own world, a midwestern consciousness tempered by a worldly sensibility.
The vocals on “Second Communion” fall a little flat, but the song is achy and tinny with steel guitar. Frontier Trust’s sensibility is fully realized on the last song, “Spit,” wherein the vocalist’s gangly fire is augmented by a rollicking banjo that keeps a vigorous pace with the band’s punk rock furor.