Glenn Robinson’s 2013 full length ‘Modern Mistakes’ was a great release. Packed with punky riffs, hooky choruses and a touch of new-wave sassiness, its ten songs zipped past in an “all killer no filler” fashion, representing the very best the style has to offer. This three track EP – issued as a stop-gap release before his next long player – presents three previously unreleased tracks of a similarly high quality.
The most aggressive of these, ‘Rear Ending a Hearse’ kicks off with a chunky riff that’s a dead ringer for The Lemonheads’ ‘Rat Velvet’, both in style and tone. As the main dirty riff steps back, the pace increases to classic punk frenzy, with Robinson’s drums and muted guitar taking the lead. The angry riff that led us to this point reappears between verses; the pull between these two distinct elements giving this number a real energy. Throw in a melodic vocal and a breakneck guitar lead (also played by Robinson, handling all instruments on this track), and you have an instant punk classic.
Tapping into a more friendly style, ‘Hold My Gold’ rattles along with punk-pop brilliance, pitching Robinson’s style somewhere between the faster elements of the Kurt Baker Band and the timeless punk-pop of Descendents at their most melodic. A lead break (played by The Trophy Wives’ Chris Piquette) straddles punky aggression and melody and comes up winning, everything combined making one of those tunes that just proves you can really strike gold (no pun intended) in under two minutes. Similarly squaring up at the punk-pop market, the singalong qualities that drive the bouncy ‘Waste No Time’ – a tune with a killer chorus providing a joyous earworm – is the perfect punk tune for summer. Sounding like a cross between Dan Vapid and Good Charlotte [any comparison to the latter is purely in relation to this man’s gift for catchy hooks and is not in any way meant as a slur], the mix of pop melodies and punky staccato guitar work presents a fairly typical sound, but there’s no questioning the strength of the writing here.
If you already have a copy of ‘Modern Mistakes’, you can’t miss this. With results every bit as good as those on his previous full-length, Glenn Robinson sounds like a man at the top of his game. If you still haven’t heard Glenn before and melodic punk is part of your staple listening, just take a couple of minutes and listen to ‘Waste No Time’ – you won’t be sorry.
April 2015