Banquets are my new favourite band. I’ve just been on their myspace, and they’ve got 193 friends. That’s an outrage, because this is fantastic.
At only four songs and 11 minutes, this EP sounds like a release from a highly polished outfit 3 or 4 albums down – but it’s a debut release from a group of friends who cut their musical teeth elsewhere (Let Me Run / The Banner) and decided to make some music for fun. These songs make up 4 of the first 6 songs the band wrote together – again, considering that the quality on offer is nothing short of fantastic.
Musically it’s firmly in the anthemic/melodic punk rock Loved Ones bracket – if you like Gaslight Anthem, Against Me! or similar you’ll lap this up. The press release also mentions Hot Rod Circuit and Get Up Kids, I guess there are shades of those, but not so much. Musically a few bits reminded me of the Lawrence Arms. It’s power chords and gang vocals, sub three minute songs, lovely drumming and Dave Hause style lead vocals.
Whilst it’s played with a smile, the music on offer here is also intelligent and thoughtful – with references to everything from The Big Lebowski (instant win, AMIRITE?), Teddy Roosevelt and Basketball. It’s melodic and punk, and it’s upbeat, but it’s a mile away from ‘pop punk’.
The stand out track, What A Bunch Of Aaron Burrs still gives me that spine tingling feeling when it drops into the chorus, despite me having listened to it nearly 3,023 times.
Check it out.