Pissed Jeans
Half-Divorced
(Sub Pop)
Who says punk can’t be funny and bring the brutality at the same time? I’m thinking of a band that does this as successfully as Pissed Jeans and drawing a blank. And, I don’t count grindcore bands because no one can understand what they’re singing about. But with Pissed Jeans, the content is right there. You have to pick it out, but it’s surprisingly easy given Matt Corvette’s barking growl. At the same time, it’s just melodic enough to get you to sing along.
Everything about their newest album Half-Divorced is about the lolz. They don’t go halfway. The only serious part is the music, which is heavy, urgent and atonal at times but filled with greasy riffs provided by Bradley Fly’s aggressive and calculated guitar playing. The production is simple and crisp and the drums are LOUD (just like they should be). The topics covered on Half-Divorced range from helicopter parenting, relief that you’re only $62,000 in debt, the downside to living in any city and stolen catalytic converters, as well as other things I don’t understand (like being an anti-sapio). Really, they can be about anything if it weren’t for the titles of these songs. There’s something new to enjoy and appreciate about Half-Divorced every time you put it on.
Is it a loser to buy colored vinyl? Maybe. Sub Pop seems to think so. I like my colored vinyl but I get their point. Half-Divorced looks too cute to be a hardcore album, but it is. The beautiful and peaceful scenery on the cover is complimented with sultry individual bandmember pics in the back and wholesome green vinyl. And the B-side? It says “We, Pissed Jeans, offer our most heartfelt sympathy to all those who, with the most sincere of hardcore intentions, purchased our humble album and were shocked and greatly discouraged by the absence of the single most significant and fundamental symbol of hardcore – the ever indispensable and precious skull.” In other words, get over yourself.
Half-Divorced is a great album, plain and simple. It’s over so quick, feels incomplete somehow once it’s done, and yet is beautiful in this aspect of its imperfection. It’s a pleasure to come back to it every time. The audacity!
photo: instagram.com/punkisdan/
