Piggies - ...And Now CD

Waterslide (2021)

I really needed to listen to something like this.  Piggies hail from Japan and have been kicking around for over twenty years.  They haven't released a ton of records during that time period, but here we are in 2021 and they have a five song EP on Waterslide records.  It's such a blast of fresh air and is one of the best things I've heard all year.

Piggies are playing a very pop forward strain of punk rock.  It's not quite as straightforward pop as something on Mutant Pop and it doesn't lean into hardcore at all the way you'd expect from the golden era of Snuffy Smile releases, but it's somewhere in the middle.  The co-ed vocals are incredible, with sugary sweet harmonies and backing vocals on every single song.  The hooks are gigantic with probably the catchiest choruses that I've heard all year.

The real selling point for me on this EP is just how much fun it is.  There's a lot of bleakness in the world these days and it's pretty easy to get wrapped up in dour feelings and angry music.  That's not Piggies. They are here to make you remember the good times and how much fun you can have with some guitars, drums and a pile of great, great tunes.  I only wish it were a full length instead of an EP.

Piggies - ...And Now:
https://watersliderecords.bandcamp.com/album/and-now

The Crump - The Song for Empty Nights CD

Imomushi (2010)

I have had three Crump 7"s for about fifteen years now.  All three of them came out on Snuffy Smiles and I dug them all.  I didn't know they put out a full length when this originally came out in 2010.  In fact, I'm not even sure when I realized that existed, but I had put it on my Discogs want list a few years ago and kept an eye out for it.  A few months ago a copy that was already located in the US dropped to a very reasonable price, so I grabbed it.

I don't exactly know how to describe this without sounding like I'm being somewhat dismissive of the record and its great songs.  So let me be very clear, I absolutely love this CD.  It is very excellent and I've listened to it a ton since it came in.  Now, if you then ask me to describe what it sounds like, I'm going to say it sounds like awesome Japanese pop punk that would be right at home on Snuffy Smiles.  

A lot of the great Japanese punk bands owe a bit of debt to the influence of Snuff and Leatherface.  The Crump are no exception to this, though I feel they're closer to the Snuff branch of things.  The vocals are great, with some killer harmonies.  The guitar work has interesting and unique riffs, without straying to far from what make pop punk fun to listen to in the first place. I feel like it has similarities with bands like Blotto or The Urchin, but has some mod leanings to it that reminds me of a band like Smalltown (yes, I know they are not from Japan).

I feel like my descriptions of this album haven't been very helpful in explaining why I like it as much as I do, but rest assured this is an excellent album.  If you are into anything put out by the likes of Snuffy Smiles, Waterslide or SP records, chances are you're going to dig The Crump as well.

The Crump - "Friday":
https://soundcloud.com/imomushi-records/the-crump-friday

Prospector - Twist & Shout 7"

Pop Ball (1998)

Digging around, I found a small stash of 7"s that I picked up during my 2017 trip to Tokyo that I never wrote about for some reason.  I'm going to try to catch up on those and I'm starting off with this record by Prospector.  They're a band that I wasn't really familiar with prior to getting this 7", but I know they had a song on that Dave Parasite Japan comp that came out a million years ago.  Best I can tell, this is their only standalone record.  Which is a shame, because I really like these guys a lot.

When the 7" starts off with "Passin' Through," you immediately know you're in for a treat.  The way the band has blended in lead riffs with their power chords and corralled the energy into an infections pop punk/rock and roll hybrid.  It sort of makes me think about the kind of stuff that Mutant Pop was trying to do with the bulk of their bands, but almost none of them were able to pull it off at this level.

Vocally, I think the sound is somewhat similar to the Navel/Plum end of the spectrum, with a little Hum Hums like harmony thrown in for good measure.  Like I mentioned early, it's too bad this is the bands only record as I'd really like to hear more from them.    

See-Saw - Get A Chance! 7"

Secret Mission (2019)

I'm having some sort of bizarre deja vu with this record.  I thought I wrote about it already, but I keep looking around and I can't find what I wrote.  I vividly remember this cover artwork, but I don't think I've done anything with it yet.  I even thought that maybe the band had another 7" I'd already reviewed, but I can't find that either.  What I'm getting at here is if I have somehow written about this record before and you find it before I do, you are much better at searching that I am.

Anyway, on to the record.  See-Saw are from Japan and play fast and catchy garage-y pop-punk.  If that sounds like a good mix of descriptors to you, I don't imagine you would be disappointed popping this record on your turntable.  The two A side songs are blazing fast with a slightly distorted guitar tone that still lets some of that nice power pop jangle shine through.

The B side song, "Don't Cry Anymore," slow things down a little bit but still has that same inherent hook-iness that the two faster songs have.  Now, is this a band that ranks as highly as some of my favorite Japanese bands?  No, they are more on the garage end of the spectrum whereas I prefer bands keep things more rooted in pop punk sounds.  That said, I do think this is a pretty good little 7".  I like all three songs and would be interested in hearing some more from See-Saw.

See-Saw - "Get A Chance!":
https://soundcloud.com/secretmissionrecords/get-a-chance-by-the-see-saw

Falls - Egg Hunt CDEP

Too Smell (2018)

I'm a little delayed on writing about a few CDs that I mail ordered from Japan quite a while ago at this point.  I'm desperate to do another order, but that's not really viable at the moment.  Luckily I still have some to write about, but I do feel guilty that it took me so long to get to this Falls EP.

For those of you with steel trap memories, you may recall that Falls was one of the excellent bands to play the Waterslide/PopKid show when I went to Japan in 2017.  They made an instant fan of me that night and each release of theirs that I pick up only reinforces that feeling.  Whenever I hear them it always makes me think of those late 90s days where emo was becoming a thing in the US, but it hadn't quite become a dirty word just yet.

The bands that always come to mind when I listen to Falls are Silver Scooter, early Three Minute Movie (Especially those 2 killer songs on their Braid split and my favorite song of theirs, "Fish Don't Think, They Swim," on that 3" compilation CD) and lastly the quieter moments of the band Boys Life.  The 4 main songs on this EP are as strong as anything that I've heard by Falls so far.  If you have either of their other EPs that I wrote about and you liked them, there's no way you won't dig this one just as much.

Falls - Egg Hunt:
https://fallsband.bandcamp.com/album/egg-hunt

Dead Ex - Tokyo Beautiful Mess CD

DEX (2018)

Dead Ex is one of the many wonderful bands that Kazu from Waterslide has recommended to me.  While they actually have more of an American sound to them than most of the Japanese bands I tend to listen to, they still manage to inject an energy into their songs that sets them apart from other bands that are dabbling in this genre.

If I'm going to make an easy comparison, it's going to be that Dead Ex are traveling a path similar to Iron Chic or RVIVR.  Most songs are extremely melodic with powerful anthemic vocals and a good amount of "whoa's" and other gang style backing vocals. But then Dead Ex changes things up and breaks out an acoustic guitar and throws down a rootsy style song that sounds like what I imagine the Gaslight Anthem could sound like if they were actually good.

While this isn't one of those bands that I think everyone in the world should immediately seek out and buy, for those that tend to favor the type of punk rock that bands like Iron Chic are peddling, this EP will fit into your collection quite nice.

Dead Ex "Just One Time Anthem":
https://soundcloud.com/deadex/just-one-time-anthem

Various Artists - A Rigid Digits Production - A Tribute To Stiff Little Fingers

Snuffy Smile (1996)

These days. there aren't all that many Snuffy Smile records that I don't have in my collection.  I'm all caught up on 7"s, but there are still a handful of CDs that have eluded me.  While they were never as high a priority as the 7"s, I really do want to get my hands on all of them in order to truly call my collection complete.  This compilation is one of the few I was still hunting.

This is a three inch CD with four bands each covering a Stiff Little Fingers song.  Registrators, who were never one of my favorite bands to release a record on Snuffy Smile, give a spirited rendition of "Wasted Life."  Sprocket Wheel tackle "Wait and See" in an interesting manner that bounces around genres mixing their trademark pop punk sound with a little bit of doo wop backing vocals and frequent tempo changes.

Nails of Hawaiian turn in the highlight of this release for me, a bouncy version of "At The Edge" with excellent guitar riffage and breakdowns.  Finally there's a band I'm really not as familiar with, Sawpit.  If their version of "Rough Trade" was an indication of the rest of their releases, I'd probably want to hear more.  That said, a quick browse through some YouTube video shows me that they typically deal in a more screamy version of hardcore which is probably why this and an appearance on the Ultimate Slow Beats compilation were their only Snuffy Smile releases.

These 4 cover songs don't make up the most compelling Snuffy Smile CD ever released.  They're fun songs, but not the sort of thing that would warrant repeated listens.  That said, from a collector position, it was very important for me to add this to my pile of Snuffy Smile releases.  Hopefully I'll be able to track down the last few.

OUTOFSTYle - 追分e.p. CD

No, She Rode (2018)

OUTOFSTYle is a band that has been releasing records since 2004 and yet I somehow have only heard of them pretty recently.  This 6 song EP is the first release of theirs that I've gotten, but after playing these songs on repeat for a while, I really want to get my hands on the rest of their catalog.

This is everything that I love about Japanese pop punk. The songs are fast and rough around the edges, satisfying my punk rock needs.  But they are also melodic and catchy, showcasing great mastery of crafting a lasting hook that keeps me coming back over and over again.  They remind me of some of the glory days of Snuffy Smile.  Sort of like Blew, but a little gruffer, though not as gruff as say Sprocket Wheel.  I think they're somewhere int he middle of those two bands if I had to try to place them somewhere.

I love all six songs on this EP and once again, I am bowled over by a Japanese band playing the exact kind of punk rock that I want to listen to.  I've not been able to get a new pack of records from Japan in a while.  I really hope that things turnaround in the world and I can start buying some records again.  While I know in the grand scheme of things record shopping is not as important as some other things in life, but songs like these bring that spark of joy that only music can provide.  I have plenty of records to listen to, but there's something special about that next great discovery.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling - The Piano Collection CD

Yamaha (2019)

To those that know me or follow me on Twitter, the fact that I am fairly obsessed with New Japan Pro-Wrestling is not a surprise.  I have been watching it for years and years and they have been a part of some great times in my life.  When this CD was announced towards the end of last year, I pretty much shrugged it off and thought it was a funny idea.  But after I stumbled across the songs and gave them a listen, I knew I had to own this.

This album contains entrance music from New Japan wrestlers, but played on a piano, classical music style.  It really hit me when I listened to this of just how lodged into my brain some of these songs were.  It also hit me that the writing of and musicianship behind these songs was at a much higher level than I originally thought.  When broken down to a single piano, you can really see the complexity of the way lead parts interplay with rumbling low end and chord changes.

Most of the main wrestlers from New Japan have their entrance music represented here.  Pretty much of them work well, with the standouts being the themes of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito and Minoru Suziki's classic, "Kaze Ni Nare."  I told my wife that if this CD had been out when we got married, I would have had to try to get Suzuki's theme into our ceremony.  She disagreed with that statement.  I guess we'll never know.

The one instance where I don't think the piano captures the theme as strongly as some of the others is for the entrance music of Kazuchika Okada.  For some reason the piano version just doesn't quite hit the same highs as the regular version of the music.  Something got lost in translation for this one, but for the other eleven songs, it's pretty impressive what the piano player was able to pull off.

Unfortunately, I can't find any of these songs streaming online.

Flashlights - Shadows and Lights LP

Secret Mission (2019)

Over the last couple of years, Secret Mission records has been giving me a real education.  I have often felt that I was reasonably tied in to Japanese punk rock.  At least more so than your average bear here in America.  Yet with release after release, Secret Mission drops a band I have never heard of into my lap.  Flashlights are another great one to add to the list.  This album originally came out in 2016 on Stay Free records in Japan.  That is a label that I know as the band Three Minute Movie put out a couple of records on Stay Free.  But it makes it all the more perplexing that I haven't heard of Flashlights before popping this on the turntable.

Anyway, this is fast and jangly power pop at its very best.  Sonically, I think they are somewhat similar to Ron Ron Clou, though probably leaning a little poppier and less of that punky energy that Ron Ron Clou harnesses so well.  That said, the pop that Flashlights churn out is pretty perfect.  Wonderful harmonies wrap themselves around the band's hooks and really elevate the proceedings.

Top to bottom, Shadows and Lights is a fun listen.  Perfect for a sunny weekend morning while you are kicking around the house, not really wanting to do much other than take in the tunes and relax.

Flashlights - Shadows and Lights:
https://secretmissionrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shadows-and-lights

Chippendale - Kill The Time Until Die CD

Fixing a Hole (2018)

I feel like I’m probably gong to be writing about the amazing Waterslide/PopKid show that happened when I was in Tokyo for the rest of my life.  It was such an incredible time and I will never forget how much fun I had and how important that night was to me.  One of the great bands that played the show was Chippendale.  I wasn’t really all that familiar with them prior to the show, but I left that night a pretty big fan of the songs they had played.

Fast forward a couple of years later and I have their full album in my possession finally.  Kill The Time Until Die is a nine song journey through some fantastically bleak, but energetic punk rock.  The bands that come to mind when I listen to the record first are Scandinavian imports such as early Manifesto Jukebox and Phoenix Foundation.  I also hear a little bit of I Excuse is some of the album's more frantic moments.  But where those bands would be a nonstop, aggressive bash in the skull, Chippendale leans towards a borderline shoegaze sound.  I still hear the tinges of anger and dissolution, but they’re presented in a more melodic way.

That’s not to say the band isn’t perfectly capable of turning their amps up to ten and unleashing a barrage of downstroke mayhem.  But I think the band is most successful when they indulge their melodic tendencies.  Kill The Time Until Die is a really dynamic listen.  I’m so glad I got to see them play live, even if it was just that one time.

Chippendale - “Unexpected”:
http://fixingahole.jpn.org/mp3s/chippendale-unexpected.mp3

Your Pest Band - Automatic Aspiration 12" - Brown Vinyl

Dirt Cult / Snuffy Smiles (2018)

I have a lot of Your Pest Band records.  They just keep releasing music and as long as they do, I'll keep buying it.  This one actually slipped through the cracks on me as I am not positive I knew it was released late last year until very recently.  It's also possible that I saw it was out, made a mental note to grab it and then promptly forgot that mental note.  As I get older I find that these sort of things happen.  I should start keeping more actual notes I think.  I'll make a mental note to do that.

The songs on this 12" are all wonderful.  I like Your Pest Band the best when they lean closer to the pop punk side of the musical spectrum.  Sometimes they get a little too psychedelic for my personal taste, but always seem to have a killer hook waiting for me around the corner.  While the six songs on this EP are really diverse, they are all super catchy and fit together like puzzle pieces.  It's just a great listen start to finish.

12" EPs aren't my favorite format on the best of days, I always just think that it would be better to wait until you have a few more songs and then put out a full length.  But when you hand me six songs this good and this cohesive, it's hard to argue that it wasn't the right call.  Though you could probably convince me that adding four more songs just as good wouldn't be a bad idea either...

Your Pest Band -  Automatic Aspiration 12":
https://dirtcultrecords.bandcamp.com/album/automatic-aspiration

Husking Bee - Grip LP

Pizza of Death (1996)

Husking Bee is a band that I discovered when I used to run the old website for Snuff.  Through that site I made friends with a guy from Japan named Tetsu.  He was the first person I knew in Japan that would help me buy records.  He also made mix tapes for me of Japanese punk rock and he put Husking Bee on one of those early tapes.  I absolutely loved them and had Tetsu help hunt me down everything by them he could find.  I never got any of the albums on vinyl back then, but he did hook me up with the CDs of their first two albums.  It was pretty weird to see the second Husking Bee album, Put On Fresh Paint released in America a bit later.

But back to this album.  Grip is the first Husking Bee full length and it came out on Pizza of Death.  This one was never released in America and while I've had the CD for about twenty years now, the vinyl has eluded me.  I finally caved in when a copy on Discogs dropped to a price I was comfortable paying and I'm just really happy to have this record in the collection.  Those first two Husking Bee records are pretty much perfect.

Grip is a straight forward pop punk record, with dynamic hooks, tons of energy and melodies that have been stuck in my head for decades.  I've feel like on this album in particular, there are a lot of similarities to the old midwestern band Walker, particularly in the guitar riffage.  Husking Bee vocals are gruffer and more melodic, but I feel like they are kindred spirits.  Songs like "8.6," "Share The Joy Of Our Tour" and "Anchor"kick my ass after all of these years, but I'll always keep coming back to the song "Question."  It's different from everything else on the album as it's built on a bouncy piano riff, but it's just so great and one of my favorite songs the band ever did. Unfortunately it's not one I can find on YouTube.  Trust me, it's great.

Husking Bee - "8.6":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTBjnqLv64

Husking Bee - "Anchor":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfbN7mw0qr4

Hateman - Welcome To Neverland CD

1000% D.I.Y. (2018)

I was absolutely floored by the Hateman record Radio Hate when I heard it for the first time.  I just loved it.  I've gotten use to the fact that a lot of bands from Japan put out an album and then don't put out a follow up for many years, if they ever do one at all.  The fact that a few short months later Hateman put out another full length album full of songs is pretty crazy, but I couldn't be happier about it.

In comparison to Radio Hate, this album leans more towards the jangly guitar and pop hook side of the punk rock spectrum.  I find myself often being reminded of the band Popcatcher, especially when it comes to the vocals.  I do like Hateman the most when they crank up the fuzz on their guitars and blast out rockers like "Dream Worker" and "My Daughter," but every song on this album is great.

I'm not sure if this is a band that is getting the credit and exposure that they deserve.  In 2018 they put out 2 full length albums that are barn burners.  I hope the band continues this pace because I will buy everything they put out.

Hateman - Welcome to Neverland (Two of the album's twelve songs are streaming):
https://hateman.bandcamp.com/album/welcome-to-the-neverland

The CSS - What A Coincidence! CD

Waterslide (2018)

The CSS is another in a long line of great bands putting out releases on Waterslide records.  There are several albums on Waterslide that use the same sort of artwork layout as the old Mutant Pop 7"s, but almost every one of the bands on Waterslide are better than most of those old Mutant Pop records. (Well, except for Underhand maybe, those are some of my favorite 7"s ever).

The CSS most remind me of The Hum Hums.  Both band have a bubblegum pop lean to them and both have outstanding backing vocals and harmonies.  Where CSS differs for me a bit is that I feel like they have more guitar chord progressions that remind me of older Lookout bands like Squirtgun.  But The CSS are so much better than Squirtgun ever was.

The golden era of pop punk in America was definitely in the 90s, but Japan continues to carry the torch today.  The CSS are just the latest band that I've heard playing the sort of music that I've always loved.  It's wonderful.

The CSS - What A Coincidence!
https://watersliderecords.bandcamp.com/album/what-a-coincidence

Sprocket Wheel - 1992 - 1997 Best of Shits 2xCD

Sweft (2000)

I wrote about a Sprocket Wheel 7" a few weeks ago and mentioned that I had found another interesting release at the same time.  This double CD is the release I was talking about and it's one that I found in a 7" bin while record shopping in Tokyo during my trip a few years ago.  I didn't really know what it was at the time that I bought it (I was buying a lot of records and in some ways not paying total attention to what I was buying), I just knew it was a Sprocket Wheel release I didn't have.

When I got back to the hotel to review my bounty, I realized this was a double CD full of Sprocket Wheel songs and from what I can tell now, it appears to be a complete collection of their entire discography.  It has all of the songs from both of their full lengths.  It has songs from their split 7"s with Goober Patrol and Less Than Jake along with the 7" I wrote about a few weeks ago.  It also contains every compilation song that I am able to find as well as a few demos.  What I'm getting at is that it's very complete.

I have a lot of these songs already, but I'll admit that it is nice to have everything compiled in one place, particularly all of those compilation songs.  Now if I want to sit down and listen to all of the wonderfully fast and melodic punk blasts that these guys released in the 90s, I don't have to tear apart my entire CD rack to accomplish that.  This Sprocket Wheel compilation is similar to a Lovemen compilation that I have..  Now if someone would put one out for Blew, I'll have the trifecta of the three biggest Japanese bands that I listened to when I first started buying records from Japan.

Sprocket Wheel - Five songs from 1992 - 1997 Best of Shits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVg4QAXTrVw

Modern Gooddays - Wait & See 7"

Eager Beaver (2013)

I went about things somewhat backwards.  While this 7" came out many years before the Modern Gooddays CD that I wrote about a few months ago, it's just now that I'm adding it to my collection.  Sitting here now, I'm trying to figure out if I have the Headsparks/Modern Gooddays split CD.  The artwork on Discogs looks so familiar and I like Headsparks too, so I feel like I should have it.  That said, I can't find it on my CD rack or in my pile of records I haven't reviewed yet.  Maybe I don't have it.  I should probably correct that.

Back to the 7" at hand.  This release from Modern Gooddays has four songs on it, one of which "Wait & See," also appears on their CD on Fixing A Hole Records.  All four songs are gruff punk rock that sounds like a mash of Snuff, Dillinger Four and Off With Their Heads.  I've mentioned before that the singer from Modern Gooddays sounds a whole lot like Paddy from D4 and that comparison is apt on this record as well.

I like the songs on this EP just as much as the ones on the Modern Gooddays CD.  It's strong and forceful, but melodic and catchy at the same time.  Especially worth picking up if you're a fan of the Paddy songs from Dillinger Four but you don't feel like waiting another thirteen years for a new D4 record.

Modern Gooddays - Wait & See 7":
https://eagerbeaverrecords.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

Yoi / Angry Nerd - Split CD

Fixing A Hole (2018)

This CD brings together Yoi from UK and Angry Nerd from Japan.  The split release with Japanese and UK punk bands were such a staple of my record buying habits in the 90s.  I discovered so many great bands that way, particularly via Snuffy Smile and the 7"s they released.  I love to see that it can still be something that happens all these years later.

There are guys in Yoi that were in the band Chopper.  That's almost all I need to see to be anxious to get this thing in the CD player and hit play.  Yoi has a mellower vibe than the buzzaw guitar blast of Chopper, but Yoi can craft a hook as strong as anything in the back catalogs of their various members.  "The Ghost Of Bobby McGee" is my favorite of the bunch with a faster paced progression of guitar chords and a hooky vocal melody.

Angry Nerd contribute four songs that sounds like a mixing of the sort of Japanese pop punk that I love, with a gruffer almost Off With Their Heads style of melodic tendency.  All four songs are strong, with my favorite being "Inside of My Fist," which I find to be the poppiest of the group.  While I wouldn't say that Angry Nerd is in the upper echelon of my favorite bands from Japan, they have songs that deserve a listen.  Unfortunately, I can't find anywhere to stream anything from this split.

Yoi - "The Ghost of Bobby McGee":
https://soundcloud.com/yyyoiiii/the-ghost-of-bobby-mcgee

Something - Still Plaing... CD

Dish and Plate (2017)

(Update - 04/30/19)

I wanted to update this post quickly with the artwork for the incredible Something CD I wrote about a few weeks ago.  I was contacted by Tommy (@tommynyo on twitter) from the band who was kind enough to send me the artwork.  I'll say it again, this is a fantastic album and absolutely one worth tracking down if you enjoy melodic punk rock from Japan as much as I do.

(Original Review):

I have no idea where I got this CD from.  I assume it must have come in one of the Waterslide packages that Kazu sent me, but it's been sitting in a pile of stuff in my room.  I don't have any artwork for it, just this disc.  Recently, I realized I hadn't ever played it and popped it into the CD player.  Wouldn't you know it, it's actually a pretty great album that's been hiding out in my room for about a year now.

This ten song album is full on melodic punk rock from Japan, with the hooks in all of the right places and singalong choruses.  This album is on the poppier side of the Japanese punk spectrum and I think they have more in common with bands like Hateman than they do with I Excuse.  The standout tracks for me are "Lost One's Face" and "Something."  Normally, I'm not into bands that have songs that are named after the band's name, but both of these songs are fast, dynamic rockers with killers hooks.

I'm really impressed with this CD.  It's great and has totally taken my by surprise.  I would really like to get ahold of the artwork that goes with the CD, so if anyone happens to have a sleeve with no CD in it, please let me know, it's probably mine.

Something - "Something":
https://soundcloud.com/something-19/something

Denomi - It's Never Too Late, Go Forward CD

With One Accord (2019)

From the very second that Kazu from Waterslide sent me a link to the Denomi video for the song "Move On," I knew that this was a band I was going to love.  Once I got the CD and was able to listen to all eleven songs, I ended up loving them even more than I thought I was going to.  This is a spectacular album and one of the absolute best things you could possibly listen to this year.

Denomi reminds me most of bands like Peace of Bread and one of my all time favorites, Cigaretteman.  They combine fast and catchy pop punk guitar chords with a mix of male and female vocals that creates an album that is incredibly dynamic and so much fun to listen to.  When I hear songs like the aforementioned "Move On" or ones like "Now Or Never" or "Seize The Day" I can't sit still.  I reflexively just start banging my hands on whatever piece of furniture is handy in time with the drums and shaking my head along with the vocal melodies.  This is the kind of music you can just lose yourself in when played at maximum volume.

My favorite song on the entire record is "Cream Soda."  The vocals are unbelievably catchy and I always end up singing along the second the verse hits.  If you can't tell, I love this album.  I really wish there was a vinyl version of it available and I would buy it in a second if anyone decided to release it.  This Denomi record will be in the fight for my album of the year in 2019.  It's worth whatever it takes to hunt down a copy.

Denomi - "Move On":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzLWt0pGE_c