Chris Tull - My Altamont
RECENTLY DISCOVERED POP-PUNK: GOOD SHIT
A recent plunge into Bandcamp’s ‘New Arrivals’ in the pop-punk category revealed some excellent new music, from bands most of us have never heard of before. As far as I can tell, these bands are all independents, doing their own thing, and not on labels, although in some cases they probably should be.
Manra
My criteria for pop-punk is totally subjective, primarily based on one simple factor: do I like it. Whether I like it or not seems to depend on originality, sonic heft, rhythm, and is highly contingent on vocals, including projection, tonal quality, and timbre.
My Altamont – Dear Life EP
New Jersey pop-punk artist Chris Tull, aka My Altamont, just dropped a stellar EP, called Dear Life.
The EP features Christ Tull (vocals, guitar, bass), Corey Meyers (drums), Sandra Bullet (backing vocals), and Christ Trace (guitar solo on “My Whole Life”).
Tull’s Brit-angsty-sneering vocals make this EP better than average. Plus the music surges with beau coup supple punk textures, along with hard-hitting energy.
Giggillas – Pretty Girls, Shitty Songs
Pop-punk trio Giggillas just dropped a tasty seven-track EP, entitled Pretty Girls, Shitty Songs. The band’s Bandcamp page indicates they’re from Krasnodar, Russia, while the EP was mixed and mastered by Marky Kobane at Bunker Studios, in Chicago.
Made up of Maria (guitar, vocals), Ann (drums), and Marika (bass, vocals), according to their Facebook page a gigilla “is a fruit of love of GG Allin and chinchilla (oh, what a nightmare!), a pretty little thing who bites someone she loves cause you might be a damn cutie.”
My criteria for pop-punk is totally subjective, primarily based on one simple factor: do I like it.
FOOLISH – Foolish
French punk/ska outfit FOOLISH dropped a new full-length album, on November 7. Self-titled, the album contains a baker’s dozen tracks of cool pop-punk. Surging guitars, crisp drums, and excellent vocals make the album worth listening to.
FOOLISH is: Aleksi (lead vocals), Julien (guitar, backing vocals), Nono (bass, backing vocals), and Enki (drums). Drummers usually get the short-end of the stick (pun intended), yet this guy, Enki, really lays it down, adding power and finesse to the tracks. Also, in my humble opinion, European pop-punk is brighter, louder, and sharper than U.S. pop-punk. It’s not better or worse, just different.
Manra – The Luck of Coins
Meet Manra, a “post-hardcore band with Latin influences from San Juan, Puerto Rico.”
Made up of Abdiel Rodriguez (lead guitar, vocals), Bryan Morales (rhythm guitar, vocals), Jean Ortiz (bass), and Emmanuel Moreno (drums), Manra blends hard-hitting punk savors with metalcore elements into potent concoctions of music.
