Warm Needles - Costanza - split - 7

Labels: Tour Van Records
Review by: MH

The artwork of a dissected brain and a load of junk suggests this might be a pop punk record and it is. Warm Needles first. I reviewed a 7inch of theirs last year and was mildly impressed with their sloppy pop punk. Same again here. It’s decent enough and again the lyrics are bleaker than you might expect. They show an appreciation of old school pop punk and both songs are hooky and snappy clocking in at just past the 2-minute barrier. The B-side features 2 songs by Costanza who are new to me. I like the band name first of all. I was about to ask why no-one had thought of using the name before but Lastfm tells me there is an Italian-born singer in Brooklyn who has gazumped them on the name front. What else do I know about this band? Very little actually. Their songs are a little longer and more measured. The vocals are gruffer and there are singalong, fist-in-the-air moments throughout. I’m not sure what the lyrics are about in “Piggies In A Blanket” – are they really singing about sausages? Aside from that, this song is a bit of a Costanza theme (“Costanza’s ready, comin at ya”). I rarely listen to this type of music but if you’re into a bit of older school pop punk then this is solid, catchy fare although not wholly original. Not that there is a contest going on, but Warm Needles win it for me on this 7inch.