Bonies ME-EP EP

Debut EP from this North Carolina trio who’ve pegged themselves as “amateur new wave,” which isn’t really the self-deprecating dig that it might seem—BONIES aren’t trying their hand at recreating slick, radio-saturated (but still punk-accepted) new wave influences, but rather the scrappier, more genuinely oddball sounds that existed further underground in the new wave era. It’s all presented through a decidedly modern lens, though: “Cake Decorator” recalls the WORLD if they’d been fixated on PYLON instead of ESSENTIAL LOGIC, loping along almost entirely on a slinky bass/drums groove and bassist Dani’s blank-emotion vocals, with sparse, needling guitar cutting in only as punctuated choruses; the tougher, echo-effected “Tango” hits a similarly tense nerve as NOTS in their post-punk/NORMAL-covering incarnation, and the B-side pairing of “Mommy” and “Belly Button” (the latter with some cheapo synth thrown in) goes a little nuevo-garage, picking up more or less where the various SUBURBAN LAWNS-idolizing bands of Lumpy Records circa 2015–2018 left off. Potent and punchy.

• Reviewer Erika Elizabeth
• Label Leisure World
• Issue MRR #487 • December 2023