It’s a familiar sound, but in this case, familiar certainly isn’t bad. Hailing from Manchester, Leagues Apart recently released their debut full-length, ‘Brief Interviews With Hideous Men’, and while they don’t go far from the style of previous releases like 2010’s ‘To Anywhere’ or the 2011 EP ‘Buffalo Club’, they really didn’t need to. ‘Brief Interviews…’ was released on April 28th on All In Vinyl and Cats? Aye! Records, and fans of melodic punk with gruff vocals will find it the perfect record to spin if they’re in the mood for anything like the Lawrence Arms or Latterman.
‘Brief Interviews…’ is full of songs about drinking, regret, drinking, touring, and heartbreak — in other words, what you’d expect from a punk rock record with this kind of sound. This a band that will fit right in with the Fest crowd (and, of course, they will be playing Fest in October), so naturally ‘Kat Dennings, You Are My Everest,’ the album opener, starts with “So lately I’ve been thinking that maybe I’ve been drinking too much… and that’s okay.” This is delivered with rough enough vocals that thinking about it hurts my throat a little bit. Once the guitars and drums kick in, it’s clear where this record is going.
Leagues Apart list on their Facebook page some of their influences as “Cheap Beer, Cheaper Whiskey… Coffee… Insomnia… Cigarettes”; those influences are quite prevalent in the lyrics of ‘Brief Interviews…’. The record will definitely appeal to fans of bands like Hot Water Music, Dillinger Four, and Off With Their Heads – the raspy vocals, driving guitars, and fist-pumping beat bring to mind a crowd covered in beer, friends with arms around each others’ shoulders, reaching out to grab the mic and sing along.
The rest of the tracks on ‘Brief Interviews…’ follow in a similar vein, with a few standouts like the aforementioned ‘Rampant Horse Is Rampant’, ‘Winston Kingdom’ (the vocals here really bringing Red City Radio to mind), and ‘Penelope Booze Cruise’. The second song on ‘Brief Interviews…’, ‘In Spite of It All’, highlights what Leagues Apart do really well on this record: catchy punk with great singalong choruses. “I drink away all my regrets, blacken my lungs with cigarettes, I’ll pool all my collective ills and slowly choke to death” might not be the most positive lyrics, but they’re definitely relatable. The last track, ‘To Know the Night Is to Live in It Forever’ closes out the record quite well, the words at this point sounding like they’re being punched through raw vocal chords — and it’s fitting.
Leagues Apart are nearly done with their brief European tour now, but you can catch them in October at Fest in Gainesville — it’s not just the US side of the pond that does beard punk well. They’ll be playing alongside countrymen Great Cynics and Apologies I Have None, among others, as well as the scores of other bands that celebrate the beer-soaked sounds exemplified on ‘Brief Interviews With Hideous Men’.
SARAH SCANLON