Eccentric Pop Records, June 16, 2020
The Putz goes next level on Rise and Shine.
Indiana’s The Putz are part of a sort of epiphany for me in recent years. Growing up in the 90’s I listened to some great Ramones-indebted punk bands like Screeching Weasel, The Queers, and The Mr. T Experience. But by 2000 or so, it seemed like that ship had mostly sailed. Maybe I was getting old, or maybe the songs weren’t there, or maybe I just got lazy or jaded. Whatever the case, I went through a bunch of years where I didn’t listen to much new punk music, instead just throwing on a copy of My Brain Hurts or Love Is Dead if the mood struck.
In the past few years, I’ve come back around, finding lots of great bands proving that catchy and simple punk rock never died. Teenage Bottlerocket and The Ergs! helped kick start this (I admit I was late to this party, both started up while I was still in my punk rock hibernation), and more recently bands like Dark Thoughts and Mean Jeans have kept me going. With Rise and Shine, I can add The Putz to the list.
Opener “Cut The Shit” comes out taking aim with some awesome popping bass and nicely integrated organ. It’s catchy as can be and would’ve been a hit with the punk crowd in the 90’s. The backing vocals are great and I love the line “cut the shit, you annoying idiot”. I know I’m getting dumb, but this is my favorite Putz song ever now. “She’s a Brat” has some great “whoa-oh” vocal parts and some super surfy sounding harmonies and the lead will get you singing along to “she’s a brat brat brat and I’m okay with that” at tough times (I actually laid in bed failing to fall asleep because that line kept going in my head). “Grow Up” does a similar trick to equally cool results. “Laserblast” and “Rise and Shine” both take advantage of my dorky love of handclaps while bopping along to more melodies for days. And “You’re the Kind of Girl That I Like” slows things down a bit, turning out a song that reminds me fondly of The Queers “Punk Rock Girls”. It’s poppy and it’s loaded with earworm hooks, and the Beach Boys-indebted backing vocals set the song off. It’s surf-punk perfection.
Rise and Shine, however, doesn’t go full pop punk. They can diversify. Like The Queers, they can go angsty and hard. “I Don’t Wanna Do Anything” has a straight mean guitar riff and the vocals sneer and yell, getting by on energy and attitude rather than melody and hooks. Same goes for the contrarian rant “I Disagree”. And “All the Time in the World” goes the opposite way, doing the slow-burning closer thing, bringing to mind Screeching Weasel’s “Your Name Is Tattooed on My Heart”. Lights out kids, it’s time for bed.
The Putz have done some good stuff already and Rise and Shine goes next level for me. I can throw this on alongside a Queers record or a Dark Thoughts record and not miss a beat. I’ll be listening to this for a while.
You might like this if:
- You like a bunch of pop, a little sneer, and a little goofy fun
- You like buzzsaw Ramones kind of stuff
You might not if:
- You don’t like the Lookout! Records/Ramones sounds
- You like your punk heavy on the anger, light on the pop
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
