EP REVIEW: The Drowns – Lunatics EP (Pirates Press Records)
The Drowns are punk scene veterans from Seattle and LA who got together in 2017 to try their hand at creating something new, and have come with an energetic and heartfelt brand of streetpunk.
A promising debut album, View From The Bottom, was released by Gunner Records in 2018, and they followed with the excellent Under Tension (reviewed here) on Pirates Press in early 2020.
It was a record which should have catapulted them to the next level as they took it around the world, but they were prevented from doing that when the coronavirus pandemic closed the live music industry down.
Now, with live touring back on most people’s agenda, they’ve shown they’re more than ready to take that step with their latest offerings.
The Drowns began this year by releasing a new single, a cover of Know Who You Are by ’70s glam bootboys Slade, paired with an original new song, Guidelines Of Control.
They hinted that they would be wearing their influences proudly on their sleeves, and they’re not joking, as there’s a boatload of them on this six-track EP.
It includes everything from streetpunk stormers to heart-wrenching ballads, proving they’re not one-trick ponies, and they’re a band I love a little bit more every time I hear them.
Gravel-voiced
The Drowns are gravel-voiced frontman Aaron Rev Peters (guitar and vocals), Andy Wylie (bass and vocals), Jonny Wade (guitar and backing vocals) and Jake Margolis (drums).
It kicks off with Live Like Yer Dyin, a fast-paced ’50s-style rock ‘n’ roll anthem about living life to the full, which was the first single from this EP. It includes some top-notch riffing and reminds me a little of Cock Sparrer’s oi! classic Working, which is obviously a very good thing.
Lunatics, the title track and second single, sees Andy take lead vocals. His voice is a less frantic and more melodic than Aaron’s, but no less engaging. Propelled by a prominent bassline, the song highlights the differences between rich and poor in society, or “the casualties of the American dream”.
The Working Dead, again sang by Andy, is about grafting for the minimum wage, being chained to a desk and chasing deadlines, and working yourself into an early grave for the minimum wage.
Aaron’s back on the mic for She’s The Knife, about falling for the sort of girl “your mama warned you about”. The band really let rip here with some AC/DC-style riffing, and it’s an absolute rip-snorter of a tune.
Look What We’ve Become shows a very different side to The Drowns, far removed from their high-octane, hook-filled punk rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a gentle acoustic song which paints a fairly bleak picture in living in anytown, USA, which you could see someone like Chuck Ragan or Tim Barry singing.
The Drowns have shown on previous releases that they have a strong social conscience, and that’s rarely been more in evidence than here, where they question the divided nation that the United States has become, where too many people are busy looking after number one.
“Homeless in poverty, black kids dying in the streets, was this all part of your American dream? … I can’t believe this is what you had planned when we were growing up”. This is not only the best song on the EP, but right up there with the best they’ve written.
The final track, Tokyo Red Alert, picks up the pace again, and is another punchy number about racing to get home from a Japanese tour before a typhoon strikes! It’s another upbeat rock ‘n’ roller, and rounds off the EP nicely.
The Drowns are due to return to Rebellion Punk Festival in Blackpool in August, and I can’t wait to see them again. Is a new full-length too much to hope for…? 8/10.
