Sunday, August 05, 2018

Corner Boys - Love Tourist

How much do I love Corner Boys?! Well, I named their debut 7" my #1 single of 2017. So you can imagine I was pretty stoked to discover that the Vancouver trio was making quick work of a follow-up. Out now on Dirt Cult Records, the 4-song Love Tourist sounds so much like a genuine punk recording from 1979 or '80 that even experts would be hard-pressed to tell the difference! Corner Boys really hit the mark for what pop-inspired punk rock ought to be. They write catchy tunes with hooks, but they play with such whirlwind speed and youthful exuberance that it seems inadequate to just call them "power pop". Think Canadian greats like Pointed Sticks and Young Canadians, anything on Good Vibrations Records, and classic American bands like The Simpletones (whose "TV Love" is covered on this EP in quite brilliant fashion). The title track is as close as a modern-day band has come to sounding like The Undertones in a really long time. "(It's A) Mystery", with its perfect mix of pep and snot, delights me to no end.

Corner Boys' first single Just Don't Care was a darn tough debut to follow, but Love Tourist is every bit as good. It makes me wanna dance until I drop and shout along to those choruses until I lose my voice. This absolutely one of my favorite bands going right now, and I'm sure a lot of you are about to feel the same!


  
-L.R.

https://cornerboys.bandcamp.com/album/love-tourist-ep 
https://dirtcultrecords.bandcamp.com/album/love-tourist 
https://www.facebook.com/CornerBoysBC/ 

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