
Destination South – Gutter
Genre: Pop Punk, Pop Rock, Alternative Rock
Destination South act as U.N. pop-punk emissaries to China on the single Gutter.
Is it possible to divorce the music from the place in which it was made? Technically, yes. But, the best songs by the Beatles would’ve never been made in Finland, nor the great funk records. Actually, don’t ever bet on Finland to provide the killer grooves.
It’s true that music is as formulaic nowadays as it is ever going to get. Eastern Europeans making Celtic Punk, or Irish folk grooving to reggae is nothing new. Some music though retains the qualities of the place in which it was made. And, the further away from home, the musicians get, the better chance there is that they’ll make something special.
Destination South is a group of Russian, Ukrainian, and South African musicians creating punk-rock in China. Gutter finds them in a search for themselves, out in the gutter, where most such searches take place. It’s a pop-punk song about distance, and about hope. And, although we’ll never know for sure, Destination South might not have been able to make this anywhere else.
Your Face – Mind Control
Your Face embrace the punk-rock basics on their single Mind Control.
For some, the world never got better, but punk rock always stayed a friend. Was the past any good? No. Is the present great? No. What about the future? You guessed it. Yet, in all of this mire and confusion, the angry sound of the guitar and a man screaming into a mic feels like the most tender thing in the world.
Punk’s always been a friend, but not the kind to whisper tender lies into the ear. Punk’s not the friend to tell you that everything’s going to be alright. The music, for better or worse, takes a note from Mr. Lydon and finds energy in anger.
Your Face go out looking for that anger and energy on their single Mind Control. Does this remind you of punk-rock bands of old? It should. The band is clearly digging up through their collection of classic punk groups. Four Face strip-down punk-rock to its essentials, three power chords, and an angry lyric.