I’ve told myself over and over that I need to try and hammer out more reviews. I have a million excuses why I choose bed over blog as of late and two of said excuses are the most important things in my life – my kids. Clearly nothing is more important than them and of course my wife, so please excuse me for not paying attention to this here ol’ blog this year.
Time to change that of course.
With recent events going on to which I need not point out, I can tell you I have been thinking about a lot of things and one of them was how much I enjoy listening to tunes, discovering new bands, and especially sharing the love. I have been wanting to talk about one particular release by a New Hampshire punk/emo/rad/DIY 3 piece band. So here we go…
After listening to New Kinda Love by Notches back in early January, I literally stopped what I was doing and ordered the LP off of their Bandcamp page.
This was an album I fell in love with instantly and deemed one of my favorites that I’ve heard of in quite some time. The album dropped in December 2019 from what I learned, but did not make it onto Bandcamp until this year.
Released by Dead Broke Rekerds/Salina Records, this is the band’s third proper release and sadly the fist time I really got into them. They’ve been around since 2013 and have made an impact on the New England punk scene, but honestly once you hear them you’d think they have been around for far longer.
Starting off the album was “Room Upstairs”, a catchy track that really carried through different equal moments of catchiness and relaxed. I really loved how much energy this band held in just on the first track.
It’s hard to believe “Museum of More Dumb Art” hasn’t been around for years and years. This track just was so tenured sounding that I had to make sure I was still listening to the same band. In other words, I was impressed as hell with this one.
“Crystall Ball” was emo Dinosaur Jr. on speed thanks to excessive fuzz throughout a memorable riff of a song. This track just brought me back 25+ years to when all that mattered to me was alternative rock. I adored it. Had a music video been made for this one, it would have been all over MTV back when they were tolerable.
I won’t lie, the best part of “Keep My Name” was the brutal aggressiveness layered with memorable bass and guitar playing. Quick track, but clearly full of angst that never sounded so good.
“Twist The Knife” won me over with the pop-punk edge that snuck into what otherwise could have been a track that amounted to an 80s SST Records artist song.
“Sober Souls” to me was a modern day Hüsker Dü track. This track was just beautiful. I really can’t explain why other than I’m over 40 and was brought years just from absorbing myself in this. Weird, right?
The number of times I told myself how great this band was while listening was almost annoying to me. Luckily I know i am not the only one who thinks this. In fact, my soon to be 5-year-old loves these guys.
Need proof?
Once this bullmess of a virus pandemic goes the hell away, Notches should be touring and it looks like they may be making a stop in Cleveland so who knows, maybe I’ll be taking my son to see his first show a littler earlier than I first intended. If he’s not quite ready, perhaps I’ll bribe the band for a quick high-five and an apple juice or something.
Don’t sleep on these guys. Notches have dropped an album you aging punks and young ones too will truly appreciate.
Once again, the Gurley House in Akron, OH, has proved for a great evening of music. There is nothing quite like seeing a show in the basement of a house that just makes it that much more personal.
