Self-Released – 30 May 2025
I want to speak to the manager, but only to say how pleased I am
I’ve never been a fan of gimmick bands, and make no mistake, The Karens are, by definition, a gimmick band. To me, if a band needs a gimmick, its typically a sign that they don’t have the musical talent and use the gimmick as a crutch. I stand by that belief, but The Karens and I Wanna Refund are definitely an exception to that rule.
Make no mistake, this is a four-piece with the talent to take over the scene. Dueling guitars from Swam and Joe are nasty, aggressive and in your face, while Bean plucks wicked bass lines walking the listener right into the chugging locomotive of Dr. Chud’s drums (yes, Dr Chud, formerly of the Misfits handles duties behind the kit). The Karens’ take no prisoners in their satirical songs of entitlement and customer service nightmarathons.
Kicking off with sounds of retail and a perfectly placed pick slide, The Karens show off the entitlement they mock to kick off the record woth “I Wanna Refund.” Thirteen minutes of fun, catchy, throwback punk and mocking the aggresively entitled continues across this 9-track tirade. The band continues to spit in the face of the wealthy, privileged and demanding on tracks like “Where The Fuck’s My Fucking Discount,” “You Stole My Mail” and other tracks that shove a silver spoon directly up the ass of the Chads and their counterparts.
Its not all fun, games and spitting in a manager’s eye, as The Karens kill it on standout track “Conversion Therapy” spitting venom in the eye of bigots and bullshit artists attacking the LGBTQ+ community in the name of fear and hate.
Another top track is “H.O.A. GOD” an original power-punch aimed directly at those pathetic souls who allow the minimal modicum of power associated with an local community board and their ill-conceived efforts to rule over the fiefdom of their cul-de-sac.
The Karens are unapologetic in their satire, screaming in the face of the capitalist scum trying to turn a profit off our dying economy, tearing down the marginalized for their own benefit and destroying communities for their own vision of progress. I can not wait for this band to get the credit it deserves.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/