DEAR LANDLORD – Dream Homes

Some pop-punk bands (or any band for that matter) are such passionless, “paint by numbers” ass hats that their insincerity and lack of joie d’ vivre for the music can be smelled from across the Punk GAP shelves. They toss some distortion, a fast beat, a pinch of humor, those nasaly vocals that sound like the front-voice bastard baby nostrilings of Mike Ness and Britney and a few melodic hooks into their laptop recording software and poof! Easy peasy. But we all know on first listen if it works or not. It’s about the spark (or lack of it) in the band and it’s music that makes it “good” or “piece-ah fuckin’ shit”.

These cats from the Chicago area are not in the ass hat category by any means. They gots it down.

Fast, catchy-like-Ebola pop-punk with Gamera-sized melodic hooks to hang all that smile-inducing “fuck you” fun. Vocals are rough and snotty but not in that aforementioned nasal whine. Musical hints of Screeching Weasel (geographically natural), NOFX, Propagandhi, and some classic Descendents float in and out of the 14 tracks. More “adult” lyrics put a larger amount of cred and honesty on the tunes (sparkless kiddies don’t sing about living in shitty apartments and trailer parks next to degenerate neighbors like in opener “I Live In Hell,” or about drinking on “Whiskey And Records”). Not overdone in the self-effacing “I’m a dork and I like it” vibe that is pretty common in this genre. Mandatory tight harmonies work well, too. A metric shit-ton of energy makes this a non-stop journey of fun, dopey grins, and jumping around in front of the stage. Sounds pretty danged honest.

(No Idea Records, PO Box 14636, Gainesville, FL 32604)