Diaz Brothers - The World Is Yours LP - White Vinyl

Dead Broke / Serial Bowl / Waterslide / Break The Silence (2025)

I have a very hard time coming to grips with the fact that the first Diaz Broithers record came out five years ago already.  I also acknowledge that the old man time-goes-by-so-fast-now trope is also a bit tiring and overused.  But I'm one for a good trope and I feel like it's an easy way to explain that the first album still sounds so fresh, exciting and vibrant I haven't really filed it into 'old friend' status yet.  It's a record I'll put on when I want to hear something new instead of an old standard.  But again, I've been doing that for five years now and that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

What will definitely move the Diaz Brothers' debut to that 'old friend' status is their new album The World Is Yours.  The fact that anyone is making music like this in 2025 is miraculous and anyone longing for those sounds of the mid 90s melodic punk scene in the UK, your ship has come in.  Sharing members with HDQ and The Jones, you're going to find that electric guitar work that fits so elegantly in the Hammond/Stubbs school of riffage and that's something I find to be in tragically short supply these days.

What sets Diaz Brothers apart from the few bands that do dip their toe into this sort of sound is how the vocals are just head and shoulders above what you tend to hear.  Rather than someone shouting like a malfunctioning Decepticon, Dave "Golly" Golledge has complete control of his vocal apparatus, weaving together melody with a passionate, intense delivery that so excellently complements the guitar maelstrom being thrown around by Mike Jones and Neal Cox.  It all comes together so perfectly and would fit right in with your favorite record of the 90s, while still having the sort of electricity that makes it feel like a new record that's currently relevant, not some nostalgic throwback.

I couldn't possibly say enough good things about The World Is Yours.  It's giving me exactly what I want to listen to when it comes to melodic punk rock.  I only wish there were more bands that could capture this sort of lightning in a bottle in 2025.  It would sure make putting together a top records of the year list a lot easier as Diaz Brothers will certainly be in the upper echelon of this year's list.

Diaz Brothers - The World Is Yours:
https://deadbrokerekerds.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-is-yours

Diaz Brothers - Diaz Brothers LP

Boss Tuneage (2020)

In addition to his highly renown work with Leatherface, Dickie Hammond had is fingers in quite a few other incredible bands.  From HDQ to Doctor Bison, Stokoe to (Fatty) Jones, pretty much everything he touched turned to gold.  The hole that remains from losing Dickie is somewhat immeasurable, but when an album like this comes along it makes things feel a little less empty.

Diaz Brothers are something of a continuation of HDQ, but when Neil Cox joined up it was insisted that it be a new band, not HDQ without Dickie.  Over the course of this album's phenomenal ten tracks, the presence of Hammond looms large, but the album is stellar in its own right and is easily one of the best records I've listened to in 2020.

More than anything, I feel a kinship with the one album that The Jones released many moons ago.  For a long time, I've felt that it is an overlooked part of the UK melodic punk canon, but was always one of my very favorites.  Like Gravity Blues, this album's foundation is built on furious guitar riffs, interesting chord progressions and Golly's incredibly powerful vocals.  This is a band firing loudly on all cylinders, but with a keen grasp on songwriting that lets them weave melodies through, without ever sacrificing the oomph.

I've said many times that my favorite ever time in music was the early to mid 90s UK scene.  So many of my favorite bands came from there and so many more were influenced by that time.  This Diaz Brothers record is every bit as good as the very best from that time period.  Considering what a shit year 2020 has been, it's really nice to have a record this good to help get through the bad times.

Diaz Brothers - Diaz Brothers:
https://bosstuneagerecords.bandcamp.com/album/diaz-brothers