New Junk City - Same Places LP

Night Animal / Secret Pennies / Real Ghost (2018)

New Junk City is a band that keeps randomly popping back into my life when I'm not expecting them.  I had a split 7" of theirs sent to me to review a few years ago, they ended up as one of the bands on an All In Vinyl single series that I subscribed to and now a full length album has shown up at my door. 

Same Places is a full length album's worth of all of the things that have made me like the New Junk City 7"s I've heard over the last several years.  This is a band playing energetic, punked up pop songs.  In reading the bio sheet, the label compares the band to several other bands that I don't think they sound like much.  Looking around the internet at other reviews of this album, it seems like most websites are essentially copying and pasting that bio and trying to pass it off as a review.  That sort of thing annoys me to no end.

What I hear are gruff vocals that remind me a little bit of that guy from Flatliners, but over top of music that's significantly better than anything The Flatliners ever released.  There's a certain amount of late 90s energy, in a Burning Airlines sort of way, but more straightforward and with a heavier emphasis on being catchy.  Or maybe a less polished version of late era Samiam, keeping the hooks in tact, but assembling things a bit rougher around the edges.

However you want to try to describe New Junk City, it boils down to the fact that the record is really good and worth checking out.  I might not being paying as much attention to them as I should, but I'm happy that outside forces keep putting this band back in front of me so I don't miss out on anything.

New Junk City - Same Places:
https://nightanimalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-junk-city-same-places-lp

New Junk City / Hot Mass - Split 7" - Orange Vinyl

All In Vinyl (2018)

I have to admit, it's been so long since I got a new split 7" from the All In Vinyl singles club, I forgot it was still going on.  When I first started seeing pictures of this record online I thought that they had started up a new year that I hadn't signed up for yet.  Then I realized that this was part of the club I had already subscribed to.  And there's still one more 7" to go.  Good times.

New Junk City is a band that I was blown away by from a 7" randomly sent to me to review in 2016.  I was so into that record, but they completely fell off of my radar again.  This split is a nice reminder that they're still out there.  The songs are somewhat ramshackle in construction, with everything sounding kind of loose, but at the same time loud and exciting.  The guitars are perfectly blown out and fuzzy and the vocals are raw, but still maintain solid melodies.  Both of their songs on this 7" are crunchy and catchy and great.  I want to hear more by these guys and I really need to pick up their first EP that I see on their Bandcamp page.

Hot Mass is another band I wrote about in 2016 when their phenomenal album Nervous Tensions came out. It seems inconceivable to me that was nearly two years ago, but those are the trappings of growing old I guess.  In those two years, it appears that Hot Mass have gotten even better than they were.  The first song on this split is a short, catchy blast of punk rock, but it's the second song "Flatman" that is a real world beater.  It's probably the best song they've released so far and it's just a perfect mix of jagged UK punk pop, with dynamic transitions and a most excellent breakdown towards the end.  Hot Mass still remind me of Rumspringer, but with that extra little bit of aggression that make them stand out.

This really is a hell of a split 7".  Highly, highly recommended.

New Junk City / Hot Mass - Split 7":

https://allinvinyl.bandcamp.com/album/split-7-20

New Junk City / Rebot (Re)pair - Split 7"

Night Animal (2016)

One of the interesting things about the recent uptick in records being sent to me to review is that it is exposing me to new bands that aren't on my radar.  Granted, that's not always for the best as there certainly some stinkers that get sent my way.  That being said, the few good ones that manage to sneak through are more than enough reward to sift through sthe sewage.

Case in point is New Junk City from this 7".  I don't really have any idea where these guys came from (OK, their Bandcamp page says they are from Atlanta, but you know what I mean).  I kind of can't fathom that I would have stumbled across this 7" on my own.  Not for any particular reason, I'm just not really sure where it would have popped up for me given my fairly narrow use of the internet.  Anyway, these two New Junk City songs are great.  On "Everything Good," lightly distorted guitar riffs in the verse give way to a chorus that crashes through the song.  The vocals are forceful, but not screamed and most of all it's supremely catchy.  "Wasting" may even be better with its bouncy chord progressions.  It's the best kind of punked up pop, without falling into the trappings of generic pop punk.

Robot (Re)pair doesn't quite hit the same kind of highs that New Junk City hits.  The recording of these three songs is a little flat, which probably doesn't help things.  The first two songs are both about a minute long and they feel like throwaways.  By the third song, "Weird World," they slow things down a bit and take their time.  The results are better and it's a reasonably catchy song, though I liked it more before I read the lyric sheet.  None of the three songs are bad, but they are completely overshadowed by how great these New Junk City songs are.

New Junk City / Rebot (Re)pair - Split 7":

https://nightanimalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-junk-city-robot-re-pair-split-7