Craving some punked-up power pop genius? These guys can deliver - and then some!
Ahhh, sweet simplicity. The multi-national Los Pepes generally rely on two main ingredients: irresistible melodies and raw, fuzzed-up punk rock guitars. Sometimes they go harder on one, sometimes the other, but the results are always great.
The band have been together for over a decade now, and frankly, I’m kicking myself that they’ve only just appeared on my radar – especially if they’ve been putting out records of this quality for all these years. Apparently their mission has always been to “get out there and do it. And do it right.” Well, gentlemen, you’ve succeeded in fine style on ‘Out Of The Void’.
At least half this record is stuffed with songs that would make the Buzzcocks annoyed for not writing themselves. Opening track ‘Thoughtless Boys’ is a case in point – two and a half minutes of distortion-soaked power pop with a belter of a chorus – whilst the religion-baiting ‘New Christians’ (complete with Ramones-style drum intro) and ‘Paradise’ (check out the video!) will also quickly take up residence in your subconscious.
They’ve got other tricks in their arsenal, though. They slow things down a bit for ‘Sweet Appeasement’ and ‘All I Got Is Time’; both replete with swirling Hammond organ and the kind of choruses that wouldn’t sound out of place on some classic 60s soul compilation. Again, though, the beauty is in the directness of it all; writing songs in this style isn’t as easy as it sounds, but – six albums in – Los Pepes seem to have it down to a fine art.
We should also give a shout out to the wonderfully twangy surf riff of ‘Undercover’ and the blast of nihilistic rage that is ‘Short Term Solution’. Vocalist and guitarist Ben Perrier damn near yells himself hoarse on the latter; clearly the fury that drove his previous (awesome) band Winnebago Deal still burns brightly.
With twelve tracks clocking in at just over half an hour, ‘Out Of The Void’ doesn’t stick around, but my goodness, it doesn’t half stick in the memory. Los Pepes will be touring plenty in the near future, and these songs will probably sound even mightier live, so do yourself a favour and go check them out.
‘Out Of The Void’ will be released on April 25th – pre-order it HERE
- Thoughtless Boys
- Molly Coddle
- New Christians
- Paradise
- Sweet Appeasement
- Future History
- Foreign Bodies
- Above And Beyond
- Short Term Solutions
- Undercover
- All I Got Is Time
- Tomorrow And Today
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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