Self Released – February 17, 2020
A rough yet impressive debut full of catchy songs
I have to admit that when hearing of The Malones the first thing that came to mind was a sort of folk punk band like The Real Mckenzies. But this three piece from Wisconsin, USA is nothing of the sort. In fact, just by looking at song #9 on this debut album entitled “Ben Weasel tried selling my guitar” you can take a good guess where they get their inspiration from. Indeed this is trashy pop punk all the way heavily influenced by Screeching Weasel, Teenage Bottlerocket, The Queers and other similar bands.
This self released debut features 16 songs, quite a few for a full length. Luckily it clocks in just under 30 minutes. Opener “All I really care about is you” sets the tone for the rest of the album: bouncing pop punk three-chord riffs, catchy Weasel-like solos and the like. Consequent songs faithfully follow this blue print but they also mix in some faster parts which mixes things up nicely. “I should’ve just stayed in bed” even has a SW-like organ solo. Sweet!
Compared to giants in the genre The Malones sound like they still need to grow in some areas. Their sound and production is a little rougher round the edges and their vocal and lyric chops while good will clearly only get even better with time. I couldn’t find exact info on when they started playing together but I’m guessing it can’t be more than a couple of years because this is only their debut release. Considering this The Malones is a rough yet impressive pop punk debut full of catchy songs that shows great promise for the future. I’m curious to see how this band will develop their song writing skills in the future.
As a P.S.: is the beef with Ben Weasel vocalised in the song “Ben Weasel tried selling my guitar” a true story? And was the Weaselrite guitar used on this album?
