Misc. Day – Out of the Spotlight

Since the last time that a band as vibrant and enthusiastic as the Vanilla Poppers, there has been a void that remained after their last record back in the distant lands of 2017. Now reinstalled with the same vigor that once captured the gleam of listeners before, they can now once again be shocked and awed with the same ferocity on I Like Your Band.

The familiar setting and style that follows with the new work is appealing, at least in the strange sense that punk music can be appealing. It is quick and unforgiving, but nothing that becomes a pulverizing piece of hardcore work. The rapid movement is incredibly focused, but showcases a record that takes four-tracks, six-and-a-half minutes, and one popped ear drum later to complete. From the marching of the later track of “I’m an Adult Baby” or even the raging work of “Get Away From Me”, the band is a translation of rocket fuel and a book of matches.

Surprisingly, I Like Your Band is always a piece that can be thrown on for a quick dose of rampaging reality before gracefully coming back down with these pauses thrown in-between tracks. The seconds that allows the refreshment of breath to enter is necessary as the break within the action feels more as a second wind than any sort of hindering action. Vanilla Poppers are still just as loud as previously, but this time around they bring four tracks that feel more as pieces of a larger body that are more memorable and pushing toward some end goal. Their previous 2017 self-titled release was not much longer but seemed to run more as a continuous flow rather than broken tracks.

Even in the more quiet moments (of which there are none) on the record, specifically the final moment where the music drifts into this sudden silence; the vocal performance commands. The real reason that the Vanilla Poppers are a force of reckoning power is simply because those hard riffs, pushing percussion, and the screeching’s that become amassed through I Love Your Band is incredible.

The band is almost awe-inspiring in the way that the communication wraps along as a snake to a pole in one singular entity of punk rock fireworks. Forming a threat disguised as a band that can work as a pushing and pressure-building machine of unorganized beauty.

Listen To I Like Your Band Here – BandCamp/Spotify/Amazon/iTunes