A recent Something Corporate show in London left one member of Punktastic frothing at the mouth recently, and after listening to their first release for Drive Thru Records, it’s not hard to see why. Six tracks of highly polished emo/punk/rock that have the biggest hooks and shiniest melodies you’ve seen this side of S Club 7…it’s really hard to dislike.
Infact SoCo are actually pretty damn fine and to think that this lot are still in their teens is nothing short of unbelievable. With a moniker such as this you’d maybe expect them to be some ironic hardcore band, but that would be a long way from the truth. Vocalist Andrew McMahon has a great voice and a rather distinctive weapon – his piano. And he uses it for some rather stunning effects, driving home melodies and littering his songs with a little tinkering of the ivories every so often. Case in point is the gorgeous opening track ‘(Hurricane) The Formal Weather Pattern’, which opens with a rather quiet piano part before the guitars kick in with palm-muting and distortion ahoy. And Andrew has one of those vocal styles which is hard to dislike, singing songs with carefully crafted choruses that quite simply have to be sung along to. The piano solo breakdown two and a half minutes in swirls around your speakers before the guitars kick in again. It’s magical stuff.
The single ‘iF yoU C Jordan’ is another great track, although in my personal opinion one of the weakest here. The piano rules the song too much, and it’s rather radio-friendly. Still, a song berating a high-school bully, it is rather anthemic and will deservedly be blaring out of a radio near you soon. The best of a very good bunch is ‘Punk Rock Princess’, which starts off rockier and darker before mellowing out into a gorgeous and summery anthemic chorus. Put it in the car, wind down the windows and sing along, because this should be on any summers day mix tape. “If you could be my punk rock princess, I could be your garage band King,” Andrew blasts out, the brilliance of the song belittling his youth.
‘Bad Days’ is again poppier, bordering on US alternative/rock, but still has enough melody to get your foot-tapping. However, I doubt it will win over your average Fugazi fan. Still, the bespectacled emo masses are bound to lap this lot up. ‘Little’ is the kind of song that would be featured in the background to Dawson’s Creek. Again the piano prevails, the lyrics are cute and the song is catchier than the bubonic plague during the middle ages. EP closer ‘Walking By’ is the token ballad, and is a great song, oozing emotion. Think Get Up Kids at their most revered and you won’t be far off. It’s not as clever, or as good, as some of the earlier tracks, but it shows the band have talent in abundance and that Mr McMahon is one hell of a songwriter, with a voice that will be infesting the television and radio for quite a while yet.
A full length CD will hit stores this summer, and for Andrew McMahon and his piano, the sky really is the limit. Kick off your shoes on a hot summers day, grab a beer and relax with this CD on. There won’t be many better ways to kick back this year.
Paul Savage