Neighborhood Brats
Confines of Life
Dirt Cult (2021)
Neighborhood Brats play punk as you’d expect it to sound – regardless of year or era. It’s angry, aggressive and timeless. A review doesn’t require hyphens and subcategories. But while they’re easy to pin into a genre, they remain full of surprises, which is exceedingly rare. For every political lyric, fist punch in the air and shout-along moment, there’s a parallel left turn. For example, while it’s the band’s third LP and fans won’t be surprised at the general sound of Confines of Life, when the record hits the instrumental surf track “All Nazis Must Die,” there’s a “whoa, didn’t see that coming…oh, but it makes sense” moment.Let’s also use that song title to talk about what the band and sound is. It’s blunt. It’s forceful. It’s unrepentant. Fittingly, that means it’s driving and energetic, memorable and often sing-along. Yet, they mix it up nicely within those confines. The very first song, “Who Took The Rain,” is a mid-tempo tune with eerie 1980s tones and, right after it, the lead to “Signs and Semantics” opens with a similarly spooky tone before the drums kick things up a few gears, maintaining a heavy tempo more or less until the end of … Read more
Van Dammes
Finally There EP
Rockstar Records (2021)
Finlands Van Dammes release their fifth EP with Finally There. This time it is kind of special. This EP celebrates … Read more
Raging Nathans
Waste My Heart
Rad Girlfriend Records (2021)
It’s the pop-punk conundrum. Raging Nathans are a distinct band -- yet they aren’t. On first listen their sound is … Read more
