By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Nekra’s unrelenting call for survival on the EP IS IT REALLY LIVING? and Mopar Stars’ living-for-the-weekend power pop album OFFICIAL RESEARCHERS OF THE NJ DEVIL!
Nekra – IS IT REALLY LIVING?
Genre: Hardcore, NWOBHC
Favorite Tracks: N/A
Attacking in both English and Spanish, Nekra’s latest EP is a no holds barred strike against the powers that be—an unrelenting reminder that all we have is each other (“I hope that that’s enough”). IS IT REALLY LIVING? may be only eight minutes long, but each second sounds birthed in the fires of a NWOBHC movement that’s only grown scrappier, angrier, and more essential sounding over its near decade of existence. The 51 seconds of “Futuro Ideal” acts as a literal central, visceral thesis sonically for the band and the EP, squirming and thrashing to become free by any means necessary. The songs are both physical and often violent but by necessity; standout “All We Got Is Us” sums up everything the band’s been doing since their first demos in 2017: “I need you and you need me / What we’re lacking isn’t numbers / It’s unity.”
The liner notes perhaps sum up the band’s energy better than I ever could: “The times are intolerable. The girls? Unbeatable, still.” That explains all eight minutes and 41 seconds perfectly. Give it a listen over on Bandcamp.
Mopar Stars – OFFICIAL RESEARCHERS OF THE NJ DEVIL
Genre: Power Pop, Garage Rock
Favorite Tracks: “Lifetime of Pain,” “Drinkallnight,” “Feast For The Smile”
Mopar Stars are here for a good time, not a long time. Featuring members of Poison Ruin, Zorn, and Sheer Mag, the reputation of the Philly supergroup clearly precedes itself—and that’s before you even get to the three line description of their excellent debut album OFFICIAL RESEARCHERS OF THE NJ DEVIL:
This is the New American Car Song Bible
They wear denim wherever they go
Philadelphia powerpop in a suped up coupe
Like that description, Mopar Stars are best characterized in their own words. Take the chorus of the two minute drinking song “Drinkallnight,” which plainly goes “I’m clocking in / To drink all day / Then I’m clocking out / So I can drink all night.” Or on the ground ‘n pound bluecollar anthem “Everyone Wants What I Got,” where they howl against the man with “There’s not much too certain / But dying and working / You try real hard / You do your part / But they fuck ya still don’t they?” This is a band that writes quick-hitting garage rock tunes about living for the weekend and resenting the 9-to-5 that drives us into an early grave—street racing, overshooting your subway exit, dizzying nights out at the last bar that really matters, each just colorful details of a life lived meant to recall on Monday mornings in the cruel light of day.
As you could guess from lyrics like these, the songs occasionally curb a theatrical cock rock edge, but it never veers into full Sheer Mag territory despite the connection. The album is better defined by the warmness of the guitar fuzz, and by Nao Demand’s understanding vocals. After years of bands talking about how underrated and important the Gin Blossoms are to power pop as a genre, here’s a band where you can hear that alleged influence down to a lead singer who often lands a very similar vocal tone to that of Robin Wilson; that grounded timbre and vast roadside jangle pop sound is in full display on the down-on-you-luck mid-tempo rocker “Smoking Room at the Feather Nest.” The sense that everything is driving towards untimely tragedy is essential to the band’s sound—after all, here for a good time not for a long time.
Look: Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that’s why I listen to Mopar Stars on company time. Spend your unemployment money on OFFICIAL RESEARCHERS OF THE NJ DEVIL at Bandcamp.
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