Meet Hakan!

In what is quickly turning into another totally incredible year for punk/garage/powerpop, a band you probably haven't heard of has delivered a surefire top ten LP. Here's a band concept for you: Italians obsessed with Turkish popular culture, playing a killer mix of garage punk and power pop. That's Hakan for you, and the band's self-titled debut album is a total firecracker. Think early Marked Men with a snottier edge. Andrea from The Snookys is the singer. And while I really dig The Snookys, Hakan is even more up my alley. I mean, come on! How can you not love a band that has its own theme song?! With only one song running longer than two minutes, this album is a glorious display of back to the basics punk rock. This is totally what I'm into: three chords, melodic songwriting, and brilliantly stupid lyrics about loving cats, eating vegans, and fondling one's genitals under the surveillance of a villainous landlord. A line like "Go go go away/Take some crappy plane to some Dutch place" is absolutely genius in my opinion. It's pretty rare to hear poppy punk rock with this much balls, so I've really got to hand it to Hakan. This band has given us a rockin' punk record that's pure catchy fun to the very end. If you're into the garage/'77 punk/power pop thing, you've got to own this LP. It's my favorite punk rock album of the year so far. Get it from One Chord Wonder Records out of Italy or Rufus Recordings out of Spain!



-L.R.

http://ocwrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ocw012-hakan-self-titled
https://rufusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/s-t-3
https://www.facebook.com/wearethehakan
https://www.facebook.com/ocw.records