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STL's FRISKIEST GET REVENGE ON A CHRISTIAN GRAFITTI ARTIST BY WAY OF CRISP DADA POP.
Upbeat
jangley
sax punk a la Kleenex
Essential Logic
Our take: Debut 7” from this band out of St. Louis. I hadn’t heard of them before, but doing my research I find that they did have an earlier demo tape. Anyway, the two sides of this 7”, while not sounding totally different from one another, take slightly different tacks. The two tracks on the a-side use a saxophone-bass-drums-vocals arrangement (though I hear a bit of guitar in there as well, I believe) and remind me of the skewed, left-of-center pop of Essential Logic or a less up-tempo X-Ray Spex. Pineapple RnR are hardly a tribute band, though… they don’t sound like they’re trying to be like those bands, but rather those are just the closest reference points that I can think of for some rather unique music. The instruments are all locked together in the manner that you would expect from a hardcore band, but the way that the sax melodies soar above everything gives it a unique feel, particularly when the dramatic, bellowing vocals pull in a slightly different direction. As for the songs on the b-side, the guitar replaces the sax as the dominant instrument, but the songs are no less delightfully skewed with this more conventional punk band setup. If you’re a fan of the early Rough Trade Records catalog and you still follow contemporary DIY punk (particularly if bands like Shopping, the World, and Downtown Boys are among your favorites), then Pineapple RNR should absolutely be on your radar. This is undoubtedly one of the more exciting things I’ve heard in 2018 so far and I can’t wait to see what this band does next.