Bay Street - Point Proven
Another pop-punk/hardcore/easycore band that needs a label to step up and sign them is Bay Street, who hail from Apopka, Florida and just dropped their Point Proven EP.
Bay Street | Photo: Nia Garza
Bay Street is made up of Zachery Maas (vocals), Devin Rintelmann (guitar), and Jason Bean (drums). The band was just an idea in Rintelmann’s head back in 2011, when he was only 16-years-old. Maas was a friend of a friend. The two met at a show on The Devil Wears Prada Dead Throne Tour. In a very short time, they began writing songs and eventually formed Bay Street, which went through the usual lineup changes.
The EP’s title, according to Rintelmann in an interview with The After Hours Review, refers to “literally proving our point with the band and showing there really aren’t any boundaries as to what you can do with music. There are all kinds of songs on the EP. We’ve been working on and recording this EP for 3 years now, we’ve scrapped songs, wrote new ones, brought back up old ones, and changed our line up over the course of that time. From the start everyone told us we couldn’t do heavy pop punk music and couldn’t have heavy songs on an EP with pop punk songs.”
Point Proven comprises five-tracks, beginning with “1640 Riverside Dr,” opening on an infectious pop-punk melody riding cool percussion and a muscular rhythm reminiscent of Fall Out Boy, back when FOB was good. Tough, glazed guitars kick it out with hefty resonance, while Bean’s drums hold the center down tight. A stylish, creamy-dreamy breakdown injects the tune with a tasty harmonic shift.
“Hollow Point” is another melodic hardcore number, with dark heavy growling vocals responding antiphonally to soaring harmonious tones.
“Sucker Punch” opens on wicked metallic-sounding guitars and then segues into a melodic hardcore punk melody complemented by screaming vocals and gleaming melodic vocal tones. Brawny with hypertrophic muscle, this song certainly proves the band’s point about viscous, heavy textures riding beau coup oomph.
“Hollow Point” is another melodic hardcore number, with dark heavy growling vocals responding antiphonally to soaring harmonious tones. I love the dirty grinding flavors of the guitars on this track, as well as the deep, rumbling drums.
“Maybe Next Week” features a straight-ahead pop-punk melody, flavored with glistening storming guitars tearing up the atmosphere. Short stints of hardcore screaming add flavorsome touches, complementing the melodious tones. The song culminates on delicious actinic guitars forming thick, shining walls of sound.
“Canoe,” the last track, is probably the hardest and heaviest of the tracks, but still exudes a frisson of scrumptious pop-punk hues merging with the hardcore gusto.
Bay Street lays it down with industrial-strength dynamics on Point Proven. Dense, flashing guitar riffs and stout rhythms combine to kick-ass.
