Yes, End of a Year give us yet another new record into which we can sink our collective teeth (if one so chooses) and its three songs might just be the best work that they can lay claim (outside my favorite song of theirs still, "Harrison"). This Albany, New York, crew truly give three crisp, D.C. hardcore inspired tracks of good punk rock. You know, the kind that sounds urgent and intelligent while being gruff and dance-y enough to make people shake their bottoms on the dance floor (my apologies to all the kung fu practitioners out there as this is not your soundtrack). Is End of a Year a throwback to some bygone era of punk and hardcore or are they some inkling of a bright future for what at times people claim as dead?
The less than a minute and a half opus that is "Robert E. Howard" strikes a strong chord with its great lead guitar part that propels the stop start rhythm and keeps the song moving while the vocal cadence is a throwback (in the best way imaginable) to the short lived D.C. band Embrace, when vocalist Patick Kindlon screams out, "No sex tonight / No sex tomorrow", I want to yell along with the 7" every time. The raw style of "Gray Morrow" makes for one of the more blistering songs from End of a Year; the lyrics for this song betray the veiled intelligence that the band hides in their joke-y irreverence: "You wanna be rich like Henry Darger / But it won't work that way partner / You've got to live in those trenches / You can't eat off real art." "Walter M. Miller Jr." takes its place just below "Harrison" in my hierarchy of great End of a Year tracks as its almost country sounding twang and lead guitars play out under the plaintive sound of the vocals that sound equally resigned as pleading.
I am not sure that one could deem End of a Year as being some uncompromising punk bastion, but they are definitely a bright spot in the field that seemingly teems with watered-down commercialism with hundreds of bands with starry dollar signed eyes; the best part is that the men of End of a Year are not purposefully reactionary to this development in punk rock, but rather they are that way out of a sincere honesty and will to just play music. The three songs on this seven inch slab of vinyl - and digital download for those without record players - are simultaneously nostalgic for a long gone era of punk and forward thinking in the way that maybe there is some hope that the punk community could become stronger and intelligent without falling into self parody. If you like good punk rock, grab this record and become spellbound by the sincerity that bleeds from every note here. I know that this is definitely one of my favorite releases - and there are many - by End of a Year.
