Guillermo Castro
Atlanta’s New Junk City have been churning out earnest, no frills melodic punk for several years now, and while their evolutions may have been small and understated, you can always count on them to deliver a flurry of hyper-charged guitars or a rousing chorus. Fortunately, the group’s latest release, a split 7″ with UK punks Hot Mass, comes with sizable portions of each. Both “Easier in Time” and “Moon Down” are spring-loaded rippers that play to the group’s primary strengths without sounding derivative.
The tracks were recorded with Damon Moon at Standard Electric Recorders, so it’s possible they’re from the sessions for Same Places, the LP the band announced last year but has yet to surface. In any case, the production here is more lo-fi and raw than you would expect from a band that trades in big, anthemic hooks above all else, but that scuffed sandpaper grit serves the songs well. As a vocalist, John Vournakis has often displayed a knack for turning emotionally weathered lyrics into a life-or-death adrenaline rush, and here he and his bandmates rustle up plenty of urgency to throw these tracks into overdrive.
“Easier in Time,” in particular, is an unabashed scorcher that sprints along at a fiery pace. Thematically it addresses the folly of putting off hard decisions and avoiding commitments with Vournakis leaning hard into the song’s central hook (“It won’t get easier in time”) while the remainder of the band thrashes and seethes around him.
But of the two cuts, it’s “Moon Down” that lingers the longest. The addition of guitarist Dakota Floyd last year provided NJC the opportunity to expand their palette beyond chugging riffs and mile-a-minute grooves, and you can hear some of that development taking shape in the form of sharper, more tension-building rhythms and leads. This angular approach adds a secondary bite to the band’s full-throttle thrust, lending Vournakis a more dynamic platform to levy his barrage of gruff yet catchy melodies. It’s yet another subtle advancement for the group, proving that critical evolutions don’t always have to arrive in leaps and bounds.
New Junk City will perform on Sat., May 12 at the Bakery alongside Whelmed, Bad Sleep, the Jeremy Ray Trio, and the Carolyn. Doors open at 7 p.m. Admission is $5. All ages.
More Info
Facebook: @newjunkcityatl
Basecamp: newjunkcityatl.bandcamp.com
SoundCloud: @new-junk-city
Twitter: @newjunkcityatl