One of the great ironies of those back-in-the-day punks rallying against the superficial nature of pop music, is that the two genres marry up to fantastic effect. Not only marry up but create a sound that is more than the sum of its parts and the best of both worlds.
Such a sonic payoff can be seen being put into perfect practice on the latest EP from Quiz Show, Flotsam. Here, the band manages to separate the cliche of punk from its vital energy and punch and the banality of pop from its infectious and effervescent nature and use only those best traits to forge three great songs.
“Super Concrete” is a bundle of spiky pop and driving drums but also laced with killer hooks, resolute riffs, punchy lyrics, and fist-in-the-air dynamics. A complete and succulent sonic package that neither pop nor punk could have fully delivered on their own.
“Packing ‘Em In” has one of those sparse, bass-driven structures so beloved of bands such as Rage Against The Machine or System of a Down, but the band is smart enough to give the listener short bursts of more song-oriented sonic life rafts to stop them drowning in the cleverness of it all. “China Glaze” then returns us to the incendiary pop format that seems to display their best moves. After all, making incendiary pop is always the best move.
Three short, sharp, and shockingly great songs prove that pop isn’t always about lowest common denominators and that punk wasn’t as dumb as it looked (it couldn’t be!). It also proves that the best music comes from the liminal places between genres but more than anything else, it proves that Quiz Show has one helluva way with songs!
Flotsam EP
Spotify
Super Concrete single
Apple Music
Quiz Show debut album
