I suppose that the irony of every musical genre is that what generally starts out as a new path or reactionary response, a musical schism or new outlet, given enough time, becomes the mainstream. If this idea were an equation, it would be something like Young Revolutionary + n (where n = a long but unspecified passage of time) = the Establishment. But not every band needs to be looking for the next sound; surely it is enough for a band to be entertaining and the music exciting and, in the case of Mad Man’s Spirit, remind all of us aging punks just how much fun the music of our youth was.
That being so, add in the fact that the music on this three-track eponymous EP is poised and polished as well as incendiary and infectious, that it is a brilliant celebration of better musical days whilst introducing enough forward-thinking creativity to stop this just being a nostalgia fest, and I think that Mad Man’s Spirit more than justifies their existence.
Sure, it isn’t hard to see where their inspiration lays, and if the brilliantly named Tony Slacker openly wears the influence of bands like The Offspring, Green Day, and the ubiquitous Sum-182 on his sleeve, it is done so with a sense of pride.
This truly international band, working between London and Germany, offers something that is both fresh and familiar: all the punk swagger and attitude, energy and killer riffs, anthemic gang vocals, and fist-in-the-air sonics you’d expect from a band taking their cue from everything that was great about the mid-90s punk revival.
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