Labels: Big Purple Records
Review by: james pacanowski
Ex-members of Vietnam Werewolf playing noodly melodic hardcore that sounds exactly as you expect it to and sing about exactly what you expect them to sing about (growing up, being broke, places with names like Warrensburg, sitting on porches). Occasionally, like on ‘Bombs’ or ‘Kansas City’, they throw in some 90s epifat basslines but they don’t really deviate from the Latterman handbook too much. Maybe the Vietnam Werewolf dudes had a bunch of band names they wanted to try out because this really is not a million miles away from that band. Maybe they’re just trying to avoid the fickle-fest crowd criticisms (“yo these dudes used to rule when Dan played bass for ’em but they suck now”) by pinning a new name on it rather than admitting that they’re pretty much the same band just with a few more singalongs this time around. I feel like I’m living in a kind of reverse Groundhog Day where I am Bill Murray, made to watch the same nucleus of 10 or so bands forever releasing a single demo, breaking up and doing the same thing the very next day. Maybe one day they’ll all reach an epiphany and I’ll wake up the next morning to the sound of the clock radio playing something other than gruff punk. Come to think of it, Punx-sutawney is probably on their list of band names to try out next.