Revelation Records – 29 Jan 2021
Gentrify this
Bay Area hardcore quartet Tørsö are back with a trifecta of face-crushing tracks on the Home Wrecked EP out now from Revelation Records. The three songs were originally recorded during 2019’s Build and Break sessions and are being released now as the band was ready to give their fans more but the lockdown prevented them from assembling to write and record. Don’t worry though, the songs haven’t lost any luster and remain relevant, relentless and full of rage.
I have to be honest, I bought the seven-inch mostly for aesthetics. Like every pretentious asshole record collector before me, I’ve made purchase decisions based on collectibility just as much as I have on enjoyment of the music.
Homewrecked was being released in a gorgeous green and yellow vinyl variant and that was the selling point for me because I may live on the other side of the country, but I bleed green and yellow like every other fan of real baseball in the Bay Area.
Turns out the looks didn’t matter because Tørsö put out a ferocious album featuring 2 originals and a sick cover that plays out in just over five minutes of delicious DBeat-style destruction as the four piece filter their East Coast influences through their own version of West Coast, Bay Area hardcore.
The album leads off with “Home Wrecked” an original power-punch aimed directly at the wealthy and their efforts to gentrify Tørsö’s hometown. This song could be the anthem for the Gamestonk Redditor stock anarchy of a few weeks back, screaming in the face of the capitalist scum trying to turn a profit off our dying economy, destroying communities for their own vision of progress. As vocalist Mae growls into the mic, “Your presence turns everything stale.”
The band continues to spit in the face of the wealthy and privileged on “Weightless,” another song that shoves a silver spoon directly up the ass of the Karens and Chads driving up the property values and driving out the residents of the Bay Area.
The final track, “You’re X’ed,” is a pummeling cover of DC hardcore architects The Faith and sounds like it easily could’ve been recorded 40 years ago with the musical techniques of today.
Tørsö fills that five minute record to the brim with chaos that sounds the trumpets and raises the alarms for the next generation while letting the old guys like me feel like we still have a record to call our own.
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/
