Philadelphia punk and hardcore bands have a reputation for being generous with their members. The latest supergroup to emerge from the city of brotherly love is DARK BLUE, a post-hardcore trio whose members play or have played with Paint It Black, Clockcleaner, Purling Hiss, Ceremony, and Puerto Rico Flowers. The band’s debut 7″ drops on Jade Tree July 15th, and they’ve got a full-length due out shortly after.
Cross the punk tonality and overall drive of Naked Raygun with Joy Division’s dramatic delivery and you’ve got a decent approximation of Dark Blue’s sound. Their inaugural track, “Just Another Night With The Boys,” is a nostalgic paean to soccer hooligan antics. Gritty bass and thick guitar pound over a drunk, plodding drum beat for an effect that sounds less like an evening on the town than the bleary trip home afterward. Amid imagery of kids lighting cars on fire, singer John Sharkey III croons, “Don’t worry, my baby, you’re in my mind every day.” The roughly five-minute track has a bittersweet feel that you wouldn’t expect given the title. The bait-and-switch is nice.
The B-side is a fairly true to form cover of “Hungry For Love,” the opening track from John Cale’s obscure pop experiment Caribbean Sunset from 1984. It’s an oddly effective choice that fits the band’s sound well. The vocals call up a throatier Ian Curtis and the guitars are crunchier than anything Cale would have used.
The band is looking to brand its music as an interpretation of Oi! and some of what the Manchester scene produced in the mid-80s. Aspects of that come through in these two tracks, like the rhythmic simplicity, reverb-y vocals, and working class imagery. We’ll see what the full-length holds, but this is an intriguing preview.
Genre/ Tags: Post-Punk, Hardcore
Just Another Night With the Boys 7″: Tracklist:
1.) Just Another Night With the Boys
2.) Hungry For Love (John Cale)
BUY the 7″ from Jade Tree on July 15th – LP to follow soon !
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