Thousand Watt Stare’s new self titled ep is a little slick and it’s got those Warped Tour Cali 3rd gen punk guitars and bottom-lite drums. However, they fit quite nicely in the modern punk pantheon. Songs professionally played, angry singing and a tight sound. Just not very Noo Yawk. Take that as a compliment or complaint depending on your location.
That could be due to 2/3’s of the band being the rhythm section of Unwritten Law (Pat Kim (bass) and Dylan Howard (drums). Christian Martucci (guitar/vox) has the required punk Cobain-esque growl and plays plenty of lead fills – the guitar sound is full.
Sounds kinda over-produced to believe the claim that this ep was recorded in one day and after only 4 rehearsals, but I’ll take their word for it.
Is there anything here to scare the parents? Nah. But nothing they’d particularly snap their fingers to either. On the Clash scale: much closer to Give Em Enough Rope than to the first Clash elpee.
Song wise, there are echoes of The Cult are evident in ”Shine”. The opener “Downsider” has got some false stops that are dramatic, and is probably extremely effective in live performances. “Lights Out” has got a galloping pulse that kinda reminds me a bit of “Blank Generation”.
The obligatory old skool punk cover of “TV Casualty” (yes the old Misfits tune) is just dandy. If you’re going to try to out heavy The Misfits, you’d better bring your “A-game”. These guys do.
Punk music for banging your head, not punching in walls.
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