In the Red Records Ramping Up
Not that they are ever very far from rockingly relevant, but since the end of 2017, In the Red Records has been representing with a capital TING. I figure DC angst-dirt super group, Des Demonas, will have been getting the most puff, and rightly so for their amazing self-titled debut LP full of some kind of Gories-meets-Sleaford Mods dragged from a humid basement bramble. It's the kind of intriguing, haven't exactly heard this before r'n'r that should be slapped across the shnozz of one of your aging pals who posts shit on Facebook like, "Is it me, or are you just pulling out old records to listen to too?"
The latest Chain & the Gang is probably the best summation of that Ian Svenonius moment of pre-Make Up reunion, post-juvenile delinquent minimal pop trash. Rarely has Svenonius been so street-strut focused. "We use the logic of night" indeed! And while Side Eyes might flirt with skater cheek, they sound perfectly in line with that particularly So-Cal strain of snotty suburban teen kick, ala Redd Kross. Well yeah, cuz not only is the album produced by Steven MacDonald, but singer Astrid McDonald is the daughter of Jeff McDonald and Go-Gos drummer Charlotte Caffey, so Side Eyes are in and around that punchy pop of their genetic codes.
Then there's the ridiculously awesome, expanded reissue of the Simply Saucer cult classic; King Khan and Sean Spits latest, and maybe heaviest(?) punk redux, Louder Than Death; AND a new, kickin’ Damned covers 7" from Cleveland trash two-fers, Archie & the Bunkers, just to bring it all full circle.
I'll focus a wee more on Shark Toys. A decidedly not So-Cal sounding trio, though that's where they're from, who take the mini mid-aughts Gizmos revamp "trend," (think Time Flys) and pound it out through their third album, (first for In the Red), Labyrinths, until it has forgotten what was irreverent in the first place and find themselves standing in a jagged pile-up of stuttering guitar leads, march-to-mess drums, odd fleeting bits of sax, and a Wire love that covers a Mission of Burma song rather than Wire. I imagine live they might come across like your junior year history class know-it-alls who nonetheless don't even bother showing up for midterms, and are discovering the angry young man template they irreverently figured history had left behind. Plus it rocks.
