#punknotpunk

Remember all that teen angst, anguish & energy?

… if you do Remote Control should be right up your street. Formed in Richmond Virginia at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Remote Control features members of Sea of Storms, Landmines, Fire in the Radio, The Possibilities, Sixer and Nutria, with Bob Spires on lead vox & guitar, Casey Martin bass & vox, Adam Caldwell drums and Nick Bergheimer guitar.

Confronting the woolly mammoth in the room, the dread P-word surfaces in their bio/write-ups (much to Plunger’s horror, as you’d expect). But as George Bernard Shaw almost said, “Britain and America are two nations separated by a common misunderstanding of the word ‘Punk’…” In the UK, it defines performers with a full realisation of their total lack of musical talent or aptitude combined with a burning desire to flaunt that lack to anyone and everyone, most likely in the back room of a South London pub or northern Legion Hall; whereas the US seems to use ‘punk’ to describe anything a bit raw or boisterous. That’s Remote Control to a T: Black Flag/Green Day (other colour/noun combinations are probably available) hi-energy-skatepark-cargo-short-garage-rock something or other…

Five singles, released over the past couple of months, range from the insistent snare-driven Blow For Blow - crash-heavy drums, churning bass and snarled vocals matched with Beat-combo harmonies and progressions (like The Jam with balls); the They-Might-Be-Giants-on-steroids meaty riffing and whimsical melody of Hope For Days; and a short, sharp, savage Annihilate, the bass at its diaphragm-flapping lowest, drums at their most frenetic, and vitriol-slathered vocals like skater Daleks (although thinking about it, Daleks technically always were skaters, really) with stinging guitar and a frenzied finale.

Get Up is a proper pogoing, air-punching, shout-along, rebel-rousing teen anthem (a Malcolm In The Middle-for-the-gritty-2020s theme, that includes an incongruous break out for Adam’s ride-cymbal and a slightly unsettling guitar-solo-for-a-different-tune). Plunger’s pick of the pack is Take Me Back, a Blink 182-meets-The Beach Boys (Nu Surf?) mix of grinding bass lines, stoner fuzz, and sunny harmony / counterpoint vocals all taken at a more relaxed pace than the breakneck helter-skelter of the other four.

Even as ardent anti-punks Plunger get a kick out of Remote Control, and you have to admit if you’ve got to relive being an angry teen anywhere then Richmond, VA beats Richmond, N Yorks hands down.