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Hi Sorry State fam! How is everyone doing? Good, good. Things are pretty chill on my end. I’m just out for a walk on this gloomy, kind of chilly day. I’m stalling because I have a shit load of cleaning I need to do! But at least I have some new records to listen to! Such as my staff pick!
It’s Pura Manía’s new EP called Extraños Casos de La Vida Real. That’s a mouthful. Right when I slapped this on the turntable it kicked my ass and woke me right up! “Oh I’m gonna like this”, I said to myself. To be honest I probably said it out loud. I talk to myself a lot. Probably an abnormal amount. Anyway, I’ve packed several orders with this record so it seems to be popular!
These guys have been silent for a while after putting out their last LP in 2017 (Cerebros Punk). The band has members from Canada and Mexico, which likely presents some challenges, but that’s just a wild guess. What matters is this EP right here. A symbol of global punk unity, this is a three way split release by Japan’s Discos Peligrosos, NYC’s Roachleg Records, and Mexico’s CV Recs.
In a word, this record is electric. It’s the equivalent to the “boom” emoji. You know the one. The orange pointy cartoonish symbol in comic books with words like boom! bang! zing! zang! Don’t mind me, I drank a Celsius a minute ago. Shout out to the limited edition flavor, Mandarin Marshmellow. It’s my favorite.
Back to the record. It’s four songs, hovering around 13 minutes or so. A lotta bang for your buck! It’s a really catchy, high-energy, sing-a-long type of record. You’ll get the point about 10 seconds in with the opener, El Viaje al Interior del Cuerpo. That song is about as anthemic as it gets. I love me some woah-oh-oh moments as I find them to be really unifying and positive. With that said, I don’t speak Spanish, so for all I know they’re singing about kicking babies, and here I am calling it feel good music. But regardless, I feel good when I hear it.
Seriously though, the band has fearlessly mastered a more musical style of oi! punk on this EP, with some really standout guitar and bass parts. The guitar parts make me think of Blitz. Particularly on their cover of the Screamers song, 122 Hours of Fear (i.e 100 Horas de Miedo). Admittedly, I’ve never heard the original, but the cover is a ripper! I think the band has a late 70’s California punk sound, combining elements of different sub-genres of punk. It’s eclectic but it feels fresh and exciting.
This is a really likable record so I’m confident that anyone who likes high-energy anthemic punk will dig it. Thanks for reading and until next time!
-Angela