He Wears His Halo Around His Neck
Old mate Mike once/always said that this right here (and I'm talking specifically about Kiwi punks Die! Die! Die!) would be what we'd always listen to, what we'd pass on to our offspring, etc.
While excusable as just a statement developing minds make about Any Band when amidst the endorphins of a career-defining release, it was a premonition which unfortunately time wasn't kind to. We both slowly drifted to calmer waters, while Die! Die! Die! themselves outgrew the angst and unclenched their teeth long enough to let some lovely melodic sounds out. Then offspring was born and those pit-punk days weren't mentioned (yet), instead forcing Half Pint to listen to McCartney, Lennon, Finn, Rosenstock and anything that landed on the spectrum between calming distraction and decent car-driving music.
But then the unexpected happened.
Die! Die! Die! returned with a new short-player called O that lands far closer to their formative "Auckland Is Burning" sound than any of the shoe-gazing-from-a-gutter stuff from the past few LPs. O is in-n-out in under ten with four short, stabby ones. Four tightly-packed ones. Drums up, angst out front, all jittery and panicked and covered with snarling punk-attitude.
Sure, there's plenty of nostalgic currency for me/us here (upon hearing this I'm immediately back there at Spectrum, 3am, soaked in spilt beer, catching frontman Andrew above my head amidst the deafening screech of feedback caused by his guitar parked against the near-busted amp) but this is always the areas where the band have sounded their most natural - hanging on for dear life while urgently full-throttling away from any comfortable sense of livin' - and the closest they come to capturing the thrilling dangerous energy of their live performances as well.
No favourites, here's the whole fucking thing...
O came out last week as a super-limited (now sold out) vinyl release, but is also available on Spotify etc. The EP is accompanied by a short run of shows here in East Australia this October, hopefully at which they'll connect the dots between this one, the "classics" and their forthcoming full-length, which the band have suggested O is the teaser for.