Vegas Vacation is a semi-regular feature where we take a look beyond the bright lights of Vegas to hype up great bands we think more people should be exposed to.
Yesterday was the first day of summer and unfortunately in Vegas, that means dealing with a sweltering average temperature of 106 F. It’s not all bad, though. Maybe it’s the pool parties and late nights with friends, but for me, summer always turns my attention to the poppier side of punk rock. And in my opinion, few new bands in the genre do pop punk better than Milwaukee’s Direct Hit!
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/direct-hit/direct-hit-monster-in-the-closet[/soundcloud]
The best way for me to describe Direct Hit! to the uninitiated is that they are like a nerdier, Latterman-influenced version of Andrew WK. They deliver lines about Cthulhu, space stations, and the perils of lycanthropy amidst a frenzy of gang vocals, blazing bass lines, thrash-inducing riffs, and shouts of “Fuck You, Get Pumped!,” the band’s rallying cry that can be found at the start of each of their 5 EPs. They’re brash, snotty, and fun. They shout their catch phrases and “whoa-ohs” like a modern-day Ramones and they have hooks that put most of their peers to shame.
There’s really no denying that a big part of the band’s appeal is a certain “dumb fun” quality, a kind of Michael Bay/Mark Millar summer extravaganza in album form, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s difficult to ignore how much fun it is to shout along with vocalist Nick Woods and co. through all the “whoas” and “yeahs” peppered through their tracks and Direct Hit! does occasionally include some deeper meaning masked in the monsters and mayhem.
They Came for Me drags the listener in with its almost all-encompassing gang-vocals, poppy handclaps, and zombie imagery that recalls the best of George A. Romero. But the heart of the song, like that of many zombie films, is its societal critique and the universally relatable feeling among young people that the rest of the mundane word is out to destroy them and make them one of their own.
Werewolf Shame, which can be found on the band’s split with fellow pop punkers Mixtapes, is a strangely pity-provoking werewolf tale, despite the lyrics “I don’t need your sympathy right now.” The track lists what would be common complaints of a werewolf including, “I don’t want to wake up a thousand times, I don’t want to sleep under the moonlight, I don’t want to fear silver bullets.”
Musically, Werewolf contains the band’s best guitar solo, while the manic, frenzied pace of Snickers or Reese’s (Pick Up The Pieces) can barely be contained by your average set of speakers. Kingdom Come has a more relaxed tempo and foregoes the genre imagery for a story of a man taking things to extreme measures after losing his factory job and In Orbit, an outer space love story, is just one of the many examples of why Robbie Schroeder is a bass player to watch out for.
Monster in the Closet, the lead single off their debut full length Domesplitter, tells the story of a boy trying to escape, well, the literal monster in his closet. Accompanying the single is Direct Hit!’s first music video, a playful take on the increasingly common lyrics video. I could describe it, but it’s really something that needs to be experienced visually, not verbally:
Domesplitter will be available August 2 on Kind of Like Records. You can purchase the album’s first single, as well as a Domesplitter b-side, right now on iTunes. And you can download, for free, the band’s 4th and 5th EPs over at DeathtoFalseHopeRecords.com.
R.I.Y.L. Latterman, Andrew WK, Movielife
-Emily Matview
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