Review: Tough Actin’ Tinactins – “Rad”

Fungus Factory Records, 31 July 2020

Tough Actin’ Tinactins make some rough and tough pop punk.

Tough Actin’ Tinactins come out of Alton, Illinois with some rough life-sucks songs.  Through some gritty and snotty vocals, Tinactins sing about a bunch of depressive stuff like they’re trying to drive the demons away through the cathartic music they make, tying it all up in mostly hooky pop punk.

From what I can tell, Rad is the debut from Tough Actin’ Tinactins.  As is pretty typical for me, my favorite stuff on here mines the pop punk fields with catchy singalongs and guitar riffs that worm into my brain and destroy it from the inside.  “Brain Fog” is one of those.  Between the kind of dirty pop punk sound, the catchy hooks and the snotty vocals singing about how “life’s been shit”, this one has me enough that I can get past the sort of street punk backing vocals that aren’t normally a favorite of mine.  Follow up “Old Novelties” fits the bill, too, tossing on a catchy guitar lead that could’ve been done by Jughead as they go on about dead dreams and missed chances.  “Let’s Dance” is a lot like “Novelties”, again dropping a humming Screeching Weasel lead guitar that props up a song that’s already catchy as can be.  And “Hairy Caray” is maybe the most memorable song on here.  The backing vocals on the verses are my favorite on the record and when they go full on “whoa-oh”, they’re channeling their best inner Misfits.  Time and again, the stuff I like most on here is somehow catchy and poppy and disturbing and depressive and snotty and persevering.

Rad does throw me off just a bit a time or two.  “Ska Song #1” seems like a tossed off goofy song that’s done more as a song that mocks ska.  And while I can sometimes get behind such larks, this one doesn’t really work for me.  It’s nothing horrible, it’s just a song that I’m going to be prone to skip past.  The other one that throws me off the scent is the closer “Long Road”.  The song has a thick rock riff that gets my dumb brain thinking of dumb Ugly Kid Joe for some reason (and I’m not saying that’s fair or accurate; I’ve listened to it a bunch trying to figure out why my brain goes there, and I’ve got no explanation for it).  There’s no accounting for taste (or seemingly dumb and weird mis-associations).

Tough Actin’ Tinactins have a pretty good thing going here.  Rad isn’t revolutionary and it certainly isn’t spotless and sharp. It’s mostly just pretty simple, pretty angsty, pretty snotty, and pretty catchy.  So really, it’s pretty punk rock.  And the songs are mostly good and mostly worth a listen.

Favorite song: “Hairy Caray”

Favorite moment: guitar lead on “Let’s Dance”

Favorite whatever else: love the “whoa-oh” backing vocals on “Hairy Caray”