This thing is all over the map, from freak-out jazz-punk one minute (“Geneva”) to a track of haunting old man ghost noises laid atop a galloping horse, and then band to spastic punk.
I mean that in a good way.
Shitty Weekend is made up of members of Transient and The Taxpayers and call Portland home. They’re a six-piece band with not one, but two different saxophone players, but it’s punk through and through, despite the horns. It’s tongue-in-cheek, angry, and fun all in one encompassing sweep. Sometimes it’s ‘80s-inspired hardcore, at others it’s melodic fare with a smooth saxophone breeze under the core. Then they say “fuck all” and close with the acoustic, folk-punky “Oh Dear.” While that sounds like there’s not a unifying factor, there is. The band establishes a cheeky tone that works across the styles and the DIY production works well with their varied sounds, pulling it all together under in unglossed package with a lot of screaming vocals and screaming saxophones. While the lyrics are of a political bent, it avoids the preachy angle.
Ultimately, Shitty Weekend a band that’s out there having a good time, planting some sarcastic seed along the way, well evidenced by the lyrics “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face around here/ I bet you’ve never ever read Steven Blush’s American Hardcore” in “Smoke Weed.” While it’s a touch goofy, it’s predominately spastic and has some varied underlying tones that remind of some of the more off-kilter items from Alternative Tentacles. Meanwhile, it sounds authentic and like a single band, able to change directions and instruments without an air of being calculated (I’m looking at you, Parquet Courts). In “Geneva” I always find the voice reminiscent of Brian Gorsegner of Night Birds and the manic tone of that band serves as a good point of reference here, even if the style varies quite a bit. It’s a 12 song, 21-minute blast of a full-length that the band probably could have put on a single side of wax had they chosen.
But it’s more fun to flip the record over and move around. That’s just what Shitty Weekend is about. This is a record to play the next time somebody tells you punk rock has grown stale.
