Labels: Bombed Out Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I don’t think I have ever heard Eighty Six, but I was fairly certain that they were a melodic pop punk band because anytime anyone talked about them, the word Jawbreaker seemed to immediately follow.Why this 6 tracker has songs that sound like a cross between Clairmel and Hot Snakes then, I will never know. Also, it comes in an orange case.
Eighty Six deal out a lot of rock on here, with vocals that sound like they were recorded whilst the singer was chewing marbles. I hope he does not do this live, there could be injuries. Marble madness! The songs revolve around tight, melodic grooves that wind up and then PING! They all unwind and make a mess. Especially on the destructive opener “The Concept Of Negative Mass”. which I swear has a brief moment that makes me think about Moss Icon. Swoon. “Movement 31” is a bit more of a straightforward rocker with snarly vocals and I was less taken by that one. Shit, this is a three piece. They sure make a racket for such a little number of people. Just check the intro on the monsterous “Stranger Danger!” for example. The drums go BAM BAM BAM! and the guitars go RIFF RIFF RIFF! and the singer goes I’VE GOT MARBLES IN MY MOUTH! and everyone at this point would be doing the twist. And that’s what you’ve got. There are 3 more songs on here, and I do not think that the rock quotient drops below “YEOWWWWWWW!” on any of them. Except for the more simple melodic punk of “Kirk to Bridge” (nerds). Apart from that there is plenty of power, yelling, groove and thunder. Utterly butterly.
This is fucking impressive. If Eighty Six were cool and trendy and Dr. Graham used to be in Drive Like Jehu then they would get a review on Pitchfork that gave them a high score, but they are just a bunch of kids from Oop North that play their instruments really well and write some kick arse tunes. That’s too bad. Check this out please. Complaint? This should be a 10″.