Record of the Week: Downtown Boys
DOWNTOWN BOYS — “Full Communism” LP
This is a seamless melding of so many punk touchstones. It’s X-RAY SPEX raised on hardcore and these saxophones (double fucking saxophones!) sound so LORA LOGIC and the rage in every moment is palpable and focused. It’s cathartic and faces the worst a capitalist, racist, sexist, classist (and so on) society can shit onto the world and finds joy in the action of confrontation and discussion and standing up for shit. The world is bleak and the subject matter of these songs is bleak but this record definitely isn’t bleak. This manages to be triumphant without being anthemic and heavily opinionated without being preachy. The lyrics fluctuate between Spanish and English, there are moments that speed up to breakneck paces and then moments that have enough space to dance in, cherry-picking the best sounds of punk and blending them into something purely exciting. This record is incredibly fucking good, an undeniably perfect punk record. (Marissa Magic)
(Don Giovanni)
