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"Ever found yourself staring at the sleeve of a record from before your time, thinking to yourself, ‘I wish I’d been around for these guys…’? Well, wake up and smell the vinyl – the best fucking punk band of your generation has already released two bona fide classics, and here they’re dropping their third.
‘Tube Reducer’ follows 2017’s double whammy of their self-titled debut and its gnarlier-than-thou follow-up ‘Weekend Rocker’ – the latter of which was released on Xmas day, cuz what’s more festive than the gift of ultra-lo-fi punk that sounds like The Undertones playing ‘Smarter Than U’ inside a hairdryer while dragging The Jags by their skinny ties and throwing them in a chemical waste dump?
And guess what? It’s more of the good stuff. In fact it could well be their best record so far. Sonically, you should know what to expect by now – a disregard for fidelity that’d make Guided By Voices knock back another beer or 12 in appreciation; songs that sound way more effortlessly simple than they necessarily are; melodies that’ll burrow their way into your head even as you fight through the fuzz to make out what the hell vocalist Alex Mitchell is actually singing…
‘Stevie Cool’ is the bona fide winner this time – the scuzzed-out powerpop anthem to end all scuzzed-out powerpop anthems – but there’s not a bad cut on offer here. ‘Nothing Good’ blazes by in a fit of nail-biting energy and hooks so razor-sharp you could use ‘em to cut through sheet metal, and if you’ve not donned your pogo-ing shoes to throw yourself between the walls of your house when ‘Life As A Fed’ kicks in… well shit, man, do you even punk rock? By the utterly batshit closer ‘Moto-Hard’ they’ve even thrown a brass section into the mix, skronking away cheerily and deliriously like Flipper’s ‘Sex Bomb’ running the wrong way up an escalator.
Basically, with every passing record, the songs get even more brain-searingly awesome, the vocals get more buried and the air above your head gets punched that bit harder. Booji Boys are on a roll. It’s anybody’s guess as to how long the Halifax-hailing quintet can continue to put out records as heroically thrilling as this, but at least we’ve got ‘em in the here and now. For fuck’s sake, treasure ‘em while you can."
Will Fitzpatrick.
Our take: Latest LP from this prolific band from Halifax, Nova Scotia. If you haven’t been paying attention, since 2016 Booji Boys has released three LPs, a slew of tapes and 7”s, and been hyped up by Iggy Fucking Pop. Their catchy lead guitar lines bear an undeniable resemblance to the Undertones, they record everything in true shit-fi(delity), and when you first hear it, it sounds like someone playing an AM radio in a loud factory. However, the songs reward your continued attention with criss-crossing earworm melodies. That’s Booji Boys in a nutshell. If you’re already a fan, I can confirm that the Booji Boys deliver more of the goods on this LP, though I sense some creative restlessness, particularly on Tube Reducer’s B side. It all still sounds like Booji Boys, but the songs are shot through with more quirky rhythms, tempo changes, and chaotic forays from which they’re always able to reel themselves back in the nick of time. You probably already made up your mind about Booji Boys and I don’t think Tube Reducer will change that, but if you’re a fan, it’s hard to imagine you won’t think this is the band’s most accomplished record.