In 2022, US band Duck & Cover released the ‘Attention Economy’ EP, a short listen that hit hard and fast with a world of trashy riffs that blended a love of garage rock with The Replacements, and even added a tinge of 80s glam to a few of the vocals. The tracks have since appeared on streaming services as three digital singles, but whether heard together or apart, the material retains its appeal. 2024’s two track ‘Trash Fest’ showed off a little more melody around the edges – particularly noticeable in the vocal approach taken on the massively hooky ‘Girl From Nowhere’ – but the band’s love of a wonderfully retro sound held firm.
Duck & Cover’s 2025 EP – the imaginatively titled ‘EP’ – essentially offers more of the same. If you’re a fan, of course, this certainly won’t be considered a bad thing, especially when ‘No Hounds In The Cluster’ re-introduces Duck & Cover with a genuine vigour. Armed with a dirty riff, Duck & Cover blend the finest in melodic punk and hard rock sounds on this particular track, before wheeling out a twin lead guitar sound to create a huge musical hook. Throwing themselves headlong into the meat of the arrangement, a rough and ready vocal gives the air of being influenced by ‘Made To Be Broken’ era Soul Asylum, before a raucous lead guitar break and shouty refrain create an even more incendiary climax. In and out in under two minutes, it proves an effective number for shaking the audience into life, but the remainder of the EP is almost as catchy – and pretty much as tough sounding.
Kicking off with an overdriven guitar riff, ‘Bored In The City’ hits with a huge punk ‘n’ roll riff, which is used equally as effectively between the verses, giving D&C plenty of punch. Between those riffs, the track opts for a near perfect blend of punkiness and retro college rock sneering, ending up with a sound that could’ve made the band stars in the mid 90s. The sound may be immediately familiar, but the playing is stellar throughout. There’s a dirtier sounding guitar dropping in occasionally, a huge bass grumble supplying the band with a fierce bottom end, and the lead vocal, although a little rough in places, summons almost as much power as a shouty Dave Pirner. The slightly punkier ‘Burn The Ships’ makes great use of a speed driven riff, a careening dual vocal and a Parasites-ish sound, adorned with a guitar tone that’s a little more college rock than straight up pop punk. In terms of capturing Duck & Cover at full thrust, everything grabs the attention immediately, but in terms of overall memorability, it’s the lead guitar work that steals the show by dropping in ascending and descending riffs that act as a very effective musical hook.
The intro of ‘Bad Blood’ offers a huge amount of musical variation on previous tracks, presenting something that sounds like a grubbier take on an old school glam rock stomper. This clearly allows the band to really pull together on a huge riff. There’s a big 70s heart, but this is offset by a world of shrill, very 80s lead guitars and a 90s style vocal, before ‘Methistopheles’ teases with a slow intro, before breaking into a punky workout that pushes the drums to the fore on an arrangement that sounds like one of The Lawrence Arms’ better arrangements augmented by a stronger vocal. Despite some of the musical elements being a little more disposable, a repetition of the title creates a decent earworm in time, and as if to pre-empt anyone claiming the punky elements here are a little too trashy, a middle eight is powered by a metallic riff and a doomier atmosphere, showing a very different side to the Duck & Cover sound. If not for the brilliant riff driving ‘Burn The Ships’, this unexpected twist and the track’s incessant hook would make this the EP’s standout.
If anything, most of this material presents a tighter and slightly more professional sounding Duck & Cover in relation to ‘Attention Economy’, but in terms of all round energy, the material is just as direct. At least three of these songs have lyrical or musical hooks that click straight away, but the whole EP is great. In under fifteen minutes, this plays like a crash course in the Boston band’s brilliantly trashy sound, and the material is strong enough to sustain repeated listening in one sitting. Sure, nothing here is particularly complex or intellectual, but if it’s pure entertainment you want, this more than has that remit covered. A recommended listen!
July 2025