where did shin guard come from?

the new record seems to have a new guitarist, who has really ramped the whole thing up. 

the previous record, from 2018, is very similar to touche amore, and actually has a bit of shoegaze feel. that kind of took me off guard, a little. it's not awful, even if it suffers from the kind of cookie-cutter issues that a lot of the music in the genre suffers from nowadays, although it's not fatal, either. maybe the fairest reaction is to point out that it sounds like a demo that is bursting a little - you can hear potential, but it isn't realized.

the ep from 2017 is more in a pop-punk style and is much weaker.

so, they're evolving. 

interesting.

https://shinguard.bandcamp.com

yeah.

sometimes, i listen to something like this a few times, and it just collapses into a stupid screamy fucking mess, and gets worse on each try, as the yelling consumes everything in it's path. sometimes, it reveals itself as little more than some jocks breaking shit and ends up being sort of comically stupid. other times, it kind of stabilizes, and more interesting passages open up out of the chaos.

i have to say that i could do without the growling. really.

but, this is a punk band. they're not trying to scare you, or prove how tough they are, they're just playing hard and loud. it's adrenaline, not testosterone.

it's a little outside of my sphere of interest, absolutely. and, i can't understand what they're saying and don't have time to look it up, or not yet, anyways. but, it's complex and intense enough that i can enjoy this, even if it's from somewhat of a distance.

that was the 27th in hamtramck, but it's cancelled.

https://shinguard.bandcamp.com/album/2020

i was born in 1981, which means i've had almost 40 years to work it out, and i'm rather comfortable in stating that i'd rather be the last gen xer than the first millennial. 

i don't have anything in common with people my own age, and i never did.

when i call myself a punk, you have to keep in mind that i'm a gen xer and not a millennial, so my concept of punk is that it was thoroughly dead and buried by about 1985 or so. i don't tend to enjoy much of anything that calls itself punk and has been released after 1990 unless it's pretty dominantly retro, and would usually even reject the label - most people under 40 that call themselves punks are more like metalheads than punks relative to my own understanding of the term, and i tend not to get along with them very well. i would argue that punk culture mostly evolved into rave culture after 1985, and, nowadays, i have more in common with people that listen to techno.

but, i still like a good artsy punk band when i can find one....

this is a little bit too heavy for my tastes, overall. but it's abstract. if it was nice out, i may have wanted to go out sort of thing, but i would generally not listen to music that is this loud.

it's getting a lot of good reviews though, and i can see why. they remind me a little of a cross between fucked up and touche amore, who were among the more interesting acts in the previous wave of punk bands.

https://shinguard.bandcamp.com/album/2020

so, this is another boring math rock band that sounds like all of the other boring math rock bands.

there was something else on the bill that was a little more interesting to me, though.

https://wearestandards.bandcamp.com/album/friends

this would have been last night if it wasn't canceled and is an interesting pastiche of some early post-rock and electronica with what i might label bowie's least interesting mid 70s period. an update on diamond dogs would be topical right now. but, i would have seen it as a combo show with that jazz act across the street.

it drags in some of the bowieesque moments, but it's interesting enough to keep an eye on.

https://247flowers.bandcamp.com/album/blue-betrothal-bouquette