Album Reviews
- by Tom Dumarey
There aren’t a lot of bands who get invited to play Coachella when they have been going at it without the help of a label, an agent or a manager. Brooklyn’s Surfbort however managed to do just that and ended up signing to Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas’ label Cult Records not long after that.
They released their debut album ‘Friendship Music’ last year and are back now with four more abrasive punk rock songs that drag you back to the 80ies whether you want them to or not. Listening to opener ‘Awake,’ you get the idea they don’t really care all that much about what you think about them. They just want to rock out in the snottiest of ways while Dani Miller sounds as casual as can be, almost bordering on bored. And if they end up sounding poppy like they do on the title track, it comes across as accidental rather than intended.
They do care though. Which is why they aim straight for Trump in ‘Forty Five,’ a fierce and scathing attack on the 45th president of the USA, and blast the mainstream media for fanning the flames of hatred in ‘Flower Of Hate’.
If you ever hear anyone uttering the cliché that punk is dead for the zillionth time, feel free to point them to Surfbort.
Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.
