Magazine Beach, hailing from Washington DC, are made up of Angelo Leitner-Wise (Vocals/guitar), Will Plumley (Guitar), Eric Foreman (Bass) and Jesse McComas (drums/vocals).
Their debut EP ‘Sick Day’ came out in December after only being together for six months, here is our track by track review:
Trainwreck
The pop sensibilities of The Beach Boys is given a punk pop shot in the arm from The Ataris and Sum 41. Despite being distinctively American in its heritage, an air of Teenage Fanclub’s melodic rumble lurks.
Teenage love is perfectly executed via the lines ‘you were the days and the nights in between’ and ‘I could cover my walls in your posters’. The hopelessly romantic and, well, hopelessness of the protagonist will bring memories back to those summers yearning for just one glimpse of “the one”.
Big Tobacco
Biff punk pop riffs need big heart. Magazine Beach's dreamer state of mind provide just that. Despite the isolation of a big city, it’s clearly provided a source of hope to escape.
Leitner-Wise and Plumley’s guitars come relentlessly fire at the gold on this track. From the playbook of Southend’s Asylums, they spew out from an almost alien psychedelic planet.
Flakey Dude
This kind of punk, historically, is overlooked for its lyrical content. OK, its not the political polemic of the Pistols or the William Blake-esque poetry of The Verve. However, who among us doesn’t blow off steam in this fashion? It’s a kind of reflection that deserves more credit.
However, musically, it does fall down but the standards set elsewhere on the EP. The Beach Boys influences dissipate and it becomes a bit one paced.
Living Room
With the anger of ‘Flakey Dude’ still in the blood, ‘Living Room’ finds that musical inspiration it deserves. The social fury of ‘Whit Riot’ collides with the deadbeat melodic genius of ‘Burnout’ on this tale of relationship turmoil.
You can buy the EP here https://magazinebeach.bandcamp.com