UK Punk has had a bit of a resurgence in the past few years, with acts like Bob Vylan and Kid Kapichi bringing the likes of grime into the sound. The result has been massive for the scene on an even larger scale with Idles having sold out numerous dates instantly.
It is a good time to be a proud fan of the UK Punk scene. Continue reading
These days, an album with fourteen tracks has become more of an anomaly than the status quo (barring Grindcore, of course, the universal exception to basically every rule ever).
Whenever The Plain White T’s come up in conversation, it is seemingly impossible to get in more than a few words before their magnum opus “Hey There Delilah” is mentioned.
Anyone who has ever screamed along to every word of Boysetsfire‘s biggest anthem “Rookie” knows Nathan Gray can deliver messaging, intensity and hooks in equal parts, but only until recently they weren’t living their full truth showing all the facets of themself to the public. After backing Nathan on a sort of solo-band journey of self-discovery, newer project The Iron Roses have found their full potential as well under their own name and elevating everyone (all six!) to equal prominence on one of the most jubilant, socially potent and catchy punk records you’ll ever hear.
With their debut album, Modern Grotesque, Dreamwell certainly hit the ground running, full of cathartic, screamo energy that most bands several years into their career wish they could muster. It was enough that the band even got picked up by Prosthetic Records, looking at Dreamwell to capture lightning in a bottle twice with their sophomore effort, In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You.
When a band captures a perfect creative moment like The Menzingers did with their sixth album 2019’s Hello Exile, they find themselves in a position of having to measure up to it. While Hello Exile was a creative high mark met with deserved praise from music critics such as myself, its success in terms of dollars and cents was relative as it hit 89 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts.
A lot of bands sound like they are writing their albums with a view to the live setting these days, with business perhaps more focused on big riffs or breakdowns and how they’ll go over in a club than fitting in to the overall theme of an album, or a band’s catalog. Washington’s current finest punk band Filth Is Eternal sound like a killer live band who also took the extra time at every element of their craft. From message to delivery, this is the full package.
For the past seven years, Spanish Love Songs have made a reputation for themselves across their previous three albums for creating some of the most emotionally powerful music, a feat that, with the release of their fourth album No Joy (Pure Noise Records), the punk quintet achieved yet again.
Punk is a music genre often associated with grassroots and “sticking it to the man”. Par for the course for the evolution of anything, the harsher edge of punk has softened from studded and spiked leather jackets and mile-high mohawks of the eighties to button-down flannels and sometimes Hawaiian shirts and Vans. But the message tends to be one and the same; rebellion, anti-norm, and angst wrapped in a DIY bow.
The pop-punk genre will never die. It’s fresh, fun, sometimes a bit silly, and wholly needed in a world full of stress and hate. People need music that makes them happy. People need music that will put a smile on their faces. People need music that will invoke a fresh breeze, wind in their hair, and a joyful being. Thank Gallus for the new album We Don’t Like the People We’ve Become (Marshall Records).