ProRawk Records/SBÄM Records, 18 September 2020
Cha Cha Cha brings the bubblegum goodness.
New Hampshire's The Queers are pretty much punk legends at this point. They've been around forever, kicking out pretty awesome, angsty, and catchy pop punk for a bunch of years now. And on the 4-song Cha Cha Cha, we get two more of the same from them. The Two Tens, on the other hand, are new to my world. I've not heard them before, and while they are decidedly more garage-y, they've got enough bubblegum to them to fit right in on this split.
The opening Queers song, “Hong Fucking Kong”, is pure candy. The backing vocals (provided by The Dollyrots) are fantastic, dropping “ooh bop-bop's” all over the place while a sort of surfy guitar plays some great hooks. And the melodies are not going to leave my head anytime soon. This is one of the catchiest songs I've heard from The Queers in a bunch of years. The verse hits. The chorus hits. It bounces with great pop energy. It's awesome. The other song, “All to You”, is a tad slower and messes around with a nice kind of melancholy vocal hook. The drums sound fantastic and almost weirdly thunderous during the quick bridge into the chorus. The Queers go two for two on Cha Cha Cha.
The Two Tens songs are a little more raw sounding with a garage vibe to them. “Gotta Find Something” alternates between noisy blasts and catchy chunks where most of the electricity drops out and acoustic guitars shuffle through and drums bounce, sounding pretty timeless in the process. And the “gotta find something, gotta find something” hook holds tight. The other song, “Till the End of the Day”, is a cover of The Kinks song, a favorite of mine. On it, The Two Tens hit it right on, keeping the melody just right, slaying the backing vocals, and driving and banging through the finish line, with some great lead guitar thrown in, too. I'm not always up for covers that hold so close to the originals (I mean, the garage vibes make it feel even closer), but The Two Tens do the song proud.
Cha Cha Cha is a cool 4-song split that will drag you back for more over and over.
Favorite song: “Hong Fucking Kong”
Favorite moment: the “ooh bop-bop” backing vocals on “Hong Fucking Kong” are disgustingly endearing
Favorite whatever else: the stripped down bubblegum melodies of “Gotta Find Something” get me smiling big
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He's very secretive, he might be an alien.