DUMP HIM - Dykes To Watch Out For
KICK ASS POP-PUNK FOR YOUR NEW YEAR LISTENING
Good pop-punk is the bomb, splendidly powerful, cool, chock-full of angst and, sometimes whiny lyrics about life and the opposite sex, who are apparently all messed up, along with anxiety about events and situations both random and contradictory to rational thought processes.
DUMP HIM
So for your New Year – 2020 – listening, I took a dive through Bandcamp’s ‘Bestselling Pop-Punk’ category. The selections offered here are subjective as all get-out, which translates to: I liked it.
Dark Thoughts – “Skin Like Paper”
Dark Thoughts is a band from West Philly, who will drop their new album Must Be Nice in January 2020, on Drunken Sailor Records. “Skin Like Paper” rides growling dirty guitars topped by nonchalant yet urgent vocals, inflected with a cool drawling nuances.
Choked Up – “Nosebleeds”
Formed in 2017 in Brooklyn, NY, Choked Up is “a pop-punk telenovela about reclaiming your heart during fascism.”
Made up of Cristy Road (feelings, guitar), Rachel Gibbons Alicea (lead guitar), Santos J. Arce (bass), and Wes Ruiz (drums), the band sings in English and Español “about crushing in the dystopia and reclaiming your brain and body from trauma.”
Their latest LP, Dichoso Corazon, was released at the beginning of November and is “a love letter to the broken hearted ....”
Best tracks include “Nosebleeds” and “Last Night at Hey Queen!” and “Dichosa Vida.” For a fact the whole album is excellent, with nary a dismal track. Road’s sneering potent voice makes the songs work.
DUMP HIM – “Song For Frankie and Blinko”
DUMP HIM is a pop-punk/queercore outfit from Massachusetts. The band is made up of Mattie Hamer (lead guitar, vocals), Larz Brogan (drums, vocals), Jac Walsh (guitar, vocals), and Otto Klammer (bass, vocals).
Their most recent album is entitled Dykes To Watch Out For, which encompasses 10-tracks.
Highlights include “Puritan,” the title track, “Trash,” and “Don’t Kiss Me, I’m In Training,” along with “Song For Frankie and Blinko.”
Road’s sneering potent voice makes the songs work.
The Hotlines – “Doctor, Doctor!”
According to their Bandcamp page, The Hotlines “formed in the spring of 2007. The Hotlines are a Punk Rock band from Brighton, England, who mix the surf harmonies of the Beach Boys with the raw power of the Ramones to bring the party to every show they play!”
Their latest album, which is really old, was released in 2012, and is called Can’t Stop Partying. The band is/was composed of Ben Ince (lead vocals, lead guitar), Matt Ince (guitar, vocals), Leon Ruocco (lead guitar), Kyle Goodwin (bass, vocals), Nick Ayton (keys, percussion, vocals), and Will Crysell (drums). Honestly, I'm not sure if they're still active.
Alice Bag Band – “No Gifts For Nazis”
Another Philly band, the Alice Bag Band released “No Gifts For Nazis” at the end of November, on Get Better Records, which is “Trans/femme/queer owned and operated. For the queers, by the queers. No sexist, no racist, no transphobic, no homophobic, no apologist bullshit tolerated.”
Cool! More power to them. I love it when people stand up for who they are.
Alice Bag Band is: Sharif Dumani (guitar, vocals), Candace Hansen (drums, vocals), David O. Jones (bass, vocals), and Alice Bag (vocals).
“No Gifts For Nazis” rides a potent rhythm, capped by hefty muddy guitars, and Bag’s raw blistering voice.
Scratch21 – “Sorry Jack”
From the UK, Scratch21 dropped their self-titled EP right before Christmas, and it’s a doozy. Grand vocals and infectious rhythms. With five-tracks, the whole EP is worth checking out.
