Labels: Asian Man Records
Review by: Joe Callaghan
I heard a quick snippet of O Pioneers before receiving this. I was expecting incontestably Florida-like pop punk. Flannel shirts and all that. I don’t really know what daft fashion decisions they have made actually. All I know is that this is a gift from above for all of us that miss Bear Vs Shark. No pop punk here. Not a guitar jump or a scissor-torn pair of shorts in sight. Just grizzly vocals about problems. Mo’ problems. Girls probably. It doesn’t matter. They could be singing Skrewdriver lyrics if they like. What matters is that it sounds like Bear Vs Shark, and that’s just splendid. The vocals often being a little bit monotone is my only quandary. His melodies are punishing when he does actually string one together, but between the choruses is an abundance of flat, almost out-of-key vocals. But, I’ll allow it for now. Because it sounds just a little bit like Bear Vs Shark. Sound like your tipple? Well, download it. The artwork looks like some painfully contemporary Sour Apple sweets package. This is just the worst art work I’ve seen on a punk rock record the first Jesus Years EP which looked like a birthday card.