Spells - Past Our Prime LP - White Vinyl (/300)

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Snappy Little Numbers / Big Neck / Rad Girlfriend / Keep It A Secret / Shield (2024)

Spells are back with their third LP, not counting their two excellent singles comps.  Past Our Prime has been a long time coming, and while I realize bands are not on the yearly album cycles of yesteryear, four years sure feels like a long time since their last full length.  I always wonder if the band is going to undergo any sort of major change or if they we still keep cranking out the tunes that I like.  In the case of Past Our Prime, it's kind of a bit of both.

One of the key selling points of Spells for me is just how so many songs sounded like a party.  Huge energy, catchy riffs and singalong choruses.  While I would never say that this album is lacking in energy, riffs or singalongs, the vibe in general feels more serious to me.  The songs feel a little slower and at times lean into a darker territory, with churning bass and pounding drums.

What this album also has is a huge old pile of gang vocals.  Do you like gang vocals?  My friend, do I have an album for you.  Essentially every song has a thunderous chorus with what feels like the entire world singing along.  Even outside of the choruses, there's a ton of dueling vocals and combo vocals between Stevie and Dusk.  That's not really a surprise when a band has two dedicated vocalists, but it really stands out on this album.

So what does this all mean at the end of the day?  Past Our Prime does feel different than past Spells albums to me.  I don't get the same sort of Rocket From The Crypt leanings or upbeat-ness (unsure that's a word, but let's go with it).  But what I do hear is a band that is coalescing into something bigger than their back catalog.  Every member moves in lockstep with each other, you can hear just how ridiculously tight and on point everything is.  The album is massive sounding and everything has a feeling of being more important than it used to be.  It's an extremely well done and great sounding album.  As I've said, I always felt like Spells was a party band.  They still are, but there's a chance you might get punched in the face at this party.

Spells - Past Our Prime:
https://snappylittlenumbers.bandcamp.com/album/past-our-prime

Custody - 3 LP - Orange Vinyl (/179)

Brassneck / My Ruin / Combat Rock / Shield / Sell The Heart (2024)

I have such fondness for Custody.  In addition to being PopKid alumni (We still have a few copies of their incredible Blistered Soul 7" in the PopKid Webstore & Bandcamp) they are also perhaps the most consistent and reliable melodic punk band going. With two prior LPs and a half dozen singles under their belt, it's no surprise to me that their third full length, appropriately called 3, is another triumph.

After writing about so many of their records, it's difficult to describe their sound without repeating myself a bit.  My go to comparisons are the melodic hooks of Samiam mixed with the dynamic guitar work of Leatherface.  That's not the be all end all of what they sound like, but it's certainly as good a starting point as any.  And if it's not obvious, comparing Custody to two absolute pillars of punk rock is no accident.  If you like Samiam or Leatherface, I just can't fathom you not being able to find something to love about Custody as well.

Compared to their prior albums, 3 shows Custody once again being as great as ever.  They aren't reinventing the wheel here.  Instead they're refining their songs that one step further to perfect them, rather than change what they are doing for the sake of it.  The ten tracks on this latest album are as good as anything they've done previously.  Searing guitar work, gigantic hooks and the sort of impassioned vocals that you just can't help but sing along to if you happened to be driving around listening to the album in your car at an unreasonable volume (or so I've heard).

Every Custody record is incredible and every Custody release is bittersweet for me.  They are a band that I wish I could have just kept putting everything out on PopKid.  They'd be quite the flag bearers, but I'm happy for all of the other labels involved as they've been able to add another classic to their catalogs.

Custody - 3:
https://custody.bandcamp.com/album/3

Bear Away - A Drastic Tale of Western Living LP - Yellow Vinyl

Brassneck / Engineer / Sell The Heart / Shield (2022)

This is a record that has been inexplicably sitting in my 'to do' pile for way too long (I have one that's been there for even longer that I desperately need to get to very soon).  I first heard of Bear Away via their split lathe 7" with Custody and was instantly charmed with their take on melodic punk rock.  When it was time for a full length, they ended up on the always stellar Brassneck records, so of course it was a no brainer to pick this up.  

At it's core, it's awesome punk from the UK with one foot in that 90s, influenced sound that I love so much and the other channeling Iron Chic, RVIVR style US influences.  There's lots of heart-on-your-sleeve emotion, but never in a way that feels cheesy or like bad emo.  It's much mopre authentic and comes from a real place of passion for the music being created.

I often say that passion, enthusiasm and energy goes a long way with me when it comes to bands.  If you can make me believe that you believe in what you're doing, I'm halfway hooked already.  Bear Away has that in spades.  I never doubt how into being in this band they are, it comes across on each of the songs on this album.  I feel bad that I'm writing about it so long after the fact, but hopefully this will put it in front of some folks that may have had it fly under their radar.  It's a great album and one that deserves more attention.

Bear Away - A Drastic Tale of Western Living:
https://brassneckrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-drastic-tale-of-western-living

Spells - Loose Change, Vol. 2 - Red w/ Black Smoke Vinyl (/300)

Snappy Little Numbers / Motorcycle Potluck Records / Big Neck Records / Keep It A Secret Records / Shield Recordings (2023)

It's been about ten years since I first discovered Spells when I picked up one of their 7"s on a lark while buying an LP by Hooper.  In those intervening years, Spells have unleashed a torrent of releases.  A couple of full lengths, yeah - but their bread and butter, to me, feels like singles and one offs.  Loose Change, Vol.2 compiles eighteen songs that had previously been available on singles, splits, comps and some that were digital only.  That's a lot of songs, and I'd like to point out that this is the second volume of Loose Change.  Vol. 1 just came out in 2018.

For a band as prolific as Spells, there's sort of a little trepidation.  Is a band releasing this much material just recording every idea, noise and fart that they can think of?  Which is why it is always so surprising to me how high the quality of all of their songs are.  Everything on this LP is really great.  There a a few really short songs, but there are no throwaways on this edition of Loose Change.

I always compare Spells to having a similar vibe to Rocket From The Crypt.  That's not to say they sound alike, because they don't most of the time.  But, they are a band that exudes that same sort of infectious energy and every time the next song fires up, it's a party.  I'm always psyched when a new Spells record is released, and even though I've heard some of these songs before, having everything put on a single LP just makes my life so much easier.  It's a blast to be able to throw this LP on, sit back and join the Spells party.  And yes, I see that Zoinks! sticker on the cover.

Spells - Loose Change, Vol. 2:
https://snappylittlenumbers.bandcamp.com/album/loose-change-vol-2
https://bigneckrecords1.bandcamp.com/album/spells-loose-change-vol-2
https://motorcyclepotluckrecords.bandcamp.com/album/loose-change-vol-2
https://keepitasecret.bandcamp.com/album/loose-change-vol-2
https://shieldrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/spells-loose-change-vol-2

Custody - II LP - Orange Vinyl (/300)

Brassneck / Waterslide / Combat Rock / Shield (2020)

Ah Custody, proud member of the PopKid family.  When I sit down and listen to this record I can't help but be a little sad that it's not a PopKid release.  These gentlemen from Finland are everything I'd want in a band on our dumb little label.  I'm very happy that we were able to help put out a 7" of theirs a few years ago, but I wish that we had pockets that were deep enough to be part of everything they put out.  Such a great band.

On to II.  This is their second full length album and I can say without hesitation it is every bit as good, if not better, than everything I've heard by them so far.  Custody is a band incapable of writing a dud song.  Everything they do has this amazing energy, from the rushing guitar riffs to the pounding drums to the soaring vocals.  The band that I always hear the most when listening to Custody is prime Clumsy-era Samiam.  But Custody takes those sounds and blends them with the influences of the very best of UK melodic hardcore with Leatherface inspired leads and Snuff style melodies.

Add in a vocalist with a true mastery of his instrument, melding the sort of power you'd hear in Iron Chic without resorting to any unseemly yelling or screaming. Gah! These guys are just too great.  Custody is one of the absolute best current bands going these days.  As I've said several times, their music is pretty much perfect when it comes to the sort of thing I want to listen to.  All I can do is hope that Custody stays together for a long, long time and puts out album after incredible album.  Maybe even another on PopKid someday...

In a conflict of interest moment, I do have a very small amount of copies of this record in the PopKid Distro.  There are very few of these in America, so if you want to avoid the costs of international postage, I recommend grabbing one quick.  I also have copies of their killer split 7" with Phoenix Foundation and of course their PopKid 7" - home of the BEST song they've ever written!  Grab what you need:

PopKid Distro:
Custody II LP - HERE
Custody/Phoenix Foundation split 7" - HERE
Custody PopKid 7" - HERE

Custody - II:
https://brassneckrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ii