
Man Meat – You Deserve Better
Similar artists: Kowloon Walled City, Helms Alee, Uzeda, These Arms Are Snakes
Genre: Punk, Post-Punk, Post-Hardcore
They say that you can only make convincing art about things that you know very well. Perhaps this is the reason why so many of the songs played on the radio sound so difficult to relate to.
Then again, so much of who we are in polite company involves trying to soften our edges and attempting to run away from conflict. It’s only natural that this would also filter into the work of artists.
There are plenty of punk-rock and heavy-metal bands who sound angry. Many of them manage to ride this strategy all the way to playing giant arenas. But how many of them sound convincing? And, just how many of them sound as as scary and make you feel as uncomfortable as hearing those topics discussed ought to?
There’s very little performative art added to Man Meat’s “You Deserve Better.” This is a coordinated ballet of angry screams and melancholy guitar lines. It sounds like a punk band whose members have grown to hate each other and who are playing their final show together. It’s fascinating, highly musical, and deserves repeated plays.
Wine Lips – Derailer
Genre: Punk
There are people who spend their entire lives screaming at anyone that they can find, turning their rage into the fundamental force that drives them. Then, of course, there are those who hardly ever complain, no matter what happens to them. When they are finally forced to raise their voice, nobody takes them seriously.
It’s hard to be a hero either by being the eternal pacifist or someone who has dedicated their life to anarchy. The world simply doesn’t answer to those basic emotions. A bit of subtlety is required.
Rock bands are much the same way. Start a heavy metal band obsessed with sacrificing virgins to the Devil, and you’re unlikely to be taken seriously by anyone other than teenage boys and mental defectives. Turn yourself into the ever-tender lover man folk singer, and nobody will believe that you are capable of anything else.
Wine Lips continues on their path of blending anarchy and modern pop hooks with their single “Derailer.” It’s a king of soft-punk sound; mall sounds for angry kids. It’ll fit well on just about any playlist, but parents won’t accuse their children listening to this of planning to murder them in their sleep. The middle ground.