POW!, “Crack An Egg”
Available: Now via Castle Face Records or at your favorite local independent record store on compact disc and standard black vinyl. While supplies last, you can order direct from the label a very limited Over Easy Edition vinyl (white with a slight splatter of yellow and bright orange center … get it?) which includes a bonus flexi disc of album standout track “Castle of Faith” remixed by Mikey Young.
Castle Face Records is a Bay Area-based record label owned and operated by Thee Oh Sees/Coachwhips/Damaged Bug mastermind John Dwyer. The label has been home to a bevy of artists in the interwoven realms of punk, garage, experimental, noise, and straight as an arrow rock ’n’ roll. Whenever an album lands on my desk and I see that it’s from the label, I will go out of my way to give it a listen, or at the very least make note to check it in the future.
I remember listening to a record from San Francisco synth-punks POW! a few years back and while good, it didn’t leave a lasting impression. I heard potential, potential that appears to have been fully realized in their latest album. The record seems so full, dense, that it’s hard to comprehend that this is a downsized version of the band. The two main players, Byron Blum and Melissa Blue, have made a fierce, up-tempo, pummeling, punk rock record that seems more and more relevant with each passing listen. Tracks such as “Back On The Grid,” “Cyberattack #3,” “Color The System,” and “Energy In Motion” embed themselves into your brain and beg for repeated listens.
Recommended for fans of Suicide, Devo, The Bondage Fairies, Gary Numan, The Faint, or !!! (Chk Chk Chk)
— Jon E. Lynch[email protected]
