punk this week: class act, guyscrapers + 16 more
Useless Eaters and the Cowboys return in this big teetering pile of new punk records.
It’s Punk This Week, the weekly see/saw column where I round up and write about the best new punk + rock'n'roll records. This week we’ve got an exceptional full-length from Kansas City’s Class Act, a fantastic introduction to Brooklyn’s Guyscrapers, another stellar new track from Useless Eaters, a new track and album announcement from the Cowboys, and so many more killer bands from all over the world.
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Class Act: Malaise [Under the Gun]
The latest album from Kansas City’s Class Act is called Malaise, and there’s a real sense of malaise permeating this excellent hardcore record. The introduction of “Big Man” is so quiet and trudging that it sounds like a post-rock dirge, and then about halfway in it becomes a rock’n’roll stomper. There’s ambitious songcraft throughout this record, with major shifts in tempo and approach, but the aesthetic is steadfast in its grounded DIY nature.
During “Monkey Business” and “Temple Run (The Third Monkey),” I watched a Shrine of the Silver Monkey compilation and felt how much more fraught and tangled my adult life has become. The screaming, stomping hardcore rage on their sardonic banger “World Peace” further underlined that feeling. Malaise keeps moving, keeps shifting, and never settles into one rhythm. This is a phenomenal hardcore record.
