Words by Jim Testa
Jim Testa founded the highly influential zine, Jersey Beat in 1982 which he continues to edit to this day. Through writing for his own publication and a number of other outlets, including as a staff writer for Hudson County’s Jersey Journal, he has championed local, regional and national up-and-coming bands. Punk has always shunned credentials, but rest assured that Jim won’t lead you astray.
GRAND SLAM
MINOT – And You’re Not (Crush Grove)
This unlikely trio from Missoula, Montana dips deeply into what Greil Marcus famously called “the old, weird America,” with an album that draws significantly from the blues with a nod towards lo-fi garage-rock. At times peppery and punky, at times yowling like Poly Styrene in an Alabama cottonfield, with a distinctive slap-echo guitar sound that eschews punk’s usual overdrive and distortion, this is a band that deserves your attention, if only to ponder what the fuck it is they’re doing. Guitarists Flora Holland and Alex Molica share lead vocal duties, with drummer Noah Mackinnon providing a steady but unflashy bassless beat. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a band in the middle of Montana (there’s a song about going to the big city, which is Helena!) but apparently it’s a pretty good way to come up with something entirely original.
HOME RUNS
THE RAVAGERS – On The Loose (Spaghetty Town Records)
It’s back to the black leather-jacketed 70s with Baltimore’s Ravagers and their throwback take on punk rock (emphasis on the Rock). “Public Hell” opens with a snotty blast of Alice Cooperish sloganeering, while the riffs on “Razor Love” owe more to bands like Aerosmith and Golden Earring than The Ramones (bassist Sam Hariss tours with the current incarnation of Dead Boys, another obvious influence). Song titles like “No Tomorrow, No Problem,” “Poison Rite,” “Night of the Bastard,” “Right to Kill” and “Meet Your Maker” point to a kinship with the whoa-oh than atophobia of The Misfits with speedy guitar solos and frantic riffage from the AC/DC songbook. Frontman Alex Hagen could have just as easily fronted a hair-metal band; you can feel the mascara sweating off as he delivers familiar 70s tropes packaged into an exciting pastiche.
DAUBER – Falling Down (Dromedary/Recess/State Champion Records)
Goodbye New Brunswick, hello Hudson Valley. Dauber is a new band formed by former Screaming Female Mike Abbate on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards, with Quinn Murphy on drums and Jenna Fairey on bass. After 20 years playing behind Marissa Paternoster in the Screamales, one of the most distinctive guitarists and vocalists the Amerindie underground has ever produced, Abbate’s clearly having a ball taking on the role of frontman, belting his guts out on vocals and banging out forceful, melodic punk rock whose energy and enthusiasm contrast the gloomy lyrics. Abbate might not match Paternoster’s guitar pyrotechnics but there’s plenty of zippy riffs and zingy solos that keep things moving, and Murphy’s bashing drums recall Mikey Erg at his most forceful. This impressive debut creates a template that the trio will hopefully expand and build on going forward, but for right now, it’s a back-to-basics winner that invites multiple listens, from the distortion-heavy 65-second blast of “Kill Me” to the undulating 3-minute fury of “Making Mega Moves.”
PHONEBOY – Heartbreak Designer (self-released)
Hoboken’s Phoneboy are proof positive that a bunch of college kids from Hoboken can actually earn a living making music, given enough talent and hard work. From early gigs as a trio earning fans on social media and relentless gigging, Phoneboy’s now a quartet currently on a 27-date national tour that ends in June at NYC’s Irving Plaza. The band’s music is bright, infectious, sincere, catchy, and speaks to post-adolescents with the kind of immediacy and connection reminiscent of The Front Bottoms. Wyn Burnham and Ricky Dana provide vocals and guitar, with James Fusco on bass and newest member Jordan Torres adding a lead female vocal and keyboards to expand the band’s sound and provide a nice counterpoint to the male vox. The band capitalizes on the enduring allure of boy meets girl love songs, like the clever “Hung Up” (he hung up on her, now he’s hung up) or Torres’ emotive yearning on the insanely bouncy “I Look Alive.” The title track, with a passionate Ricky Dana vocal and swirling blanket of synths, is the kind of lush yet sincere pop song that typically sends arenas into swaying dreamy abandon, while “Something On My Mind” has millions of moony teens dancing with joy in their bedrooms. Stay tuned!
TWO AND THREE BAGGERS
UNICORN DOGS – Inauguration (self-released)
It’s a big month for Baltimore as Charm City’s Lucas Carscadden (the froggy-voiced one) and Jon Moser (the pop-punk voiced one) give us an EP of short, fast songs about our current political nightmare, which can be listened to individually or as one long track (with interstitial samples and whatnot). No subtlety here: “You’re a snake oil salesman /A big fat fucking liar/ You’re angry and sad/ Here’s to you, you unloving, selfish prick” snarls Moser on “Snake Oil Salesman.” Carscadden replies with a takedown of Trump’s egomaniacal penchant for executive orders (“I’m very very very important!”). Other tracks rail against Trump’s lawless, imperial presidency, with equal doses of vitriol and derision, but as with all things Unicorn Dog, there’s bumptious pop-punk clatter and squawl. You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet and make a lotta noise to take down an autocrat, and nobody’s better suited than these guys.
ST. DIVINE – You Can’t Go Forward and You Can’t Go Back (self-released)
Judy Ann Nock and Will Croxton, both with impressive indie-rock resumes, first came together as backup singers for Punk Rock legend Ivan Julian. Now, with Mike Ratti on drums, bassist Jesse Barnes, and guitarist Phil Yanos, they’re St. Divine. The music – dark, undulating, pounding, desperately yearning and searching – taps into the primal roots of punk, starting with their cover of the Cramps’ “A New Kind of Kick,” redolent of CBGB’s subversion of classic rock ‘n’ roll. “Throwing Cards” adds chiming guitars and a slinky, sensuous vocal from Nock, “Four Walls” taps into a country vibe with strings and pedal steel, and their cover of The Scientists’ “We Had Love” explores the nexus between punk, New Wave, and post-punk in a crescendo of voices, guitars, and sax.
DUTCH NUGGETS – Fishbowl’d (Thousand Island Records)
Montreal skate-punks Dutch Nuggets return with their second full-length, a clobbering firestorm of urgent vocals, thrashing drums, and blazing guitars, with echoes of everything from Motorhead to Bad Religion. Fast, loud still rules: “Dead Tired” guaranteed you’ll wake up, the math-rock gymnastics of “Three of Clubs” leave your head spinning, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better anthem for the apocalypse than “The Same Old Dark Ages.” Not recommended for anyone with high blood pressure, and watch your head while stagediving, please.
ENTREZ VOUS – Antenna Legs Hear Everything (self-released)
Carrboro, NC’s Clark Blomquist and Kelly Reid, perform as Entrez Vous. Kelly sings and plays guitar, and Clark does everything else. And let me tell you, this is great. On their sophomore full-length, the band has concocted 14 tracks that run through a gamut of styles and influences, but share an ebullient likability, a positive energy, if you will. “Too Vague” kicks off with a Spector-ish wall of sound and a mid-tempo pop tune redolent of 60s girl-group pop, followed by “Dream City, 1963,” which adds a bit of country twang to the mix. The album continues in that vein, mixing elements of the Shangri-La’s with 80s New Wave, lush synths blanketing the doo-wop flavored “Trap Door” and then revving up the intensity with the chanted “Palm Springs,” X Ray Spex colliding with Neal Hefti’s “Batman Theme.” As the album progresses, the songs get darker and more complex, veering into the dense tonalities of shoegaze and post-punk.