Album Review: Punch - Push Pull

Mike Bode - Mike Bode was that scrawny kid in Junior High that remained scrawny through his High School years and into College. Always covered in bruises and scrapes, stitch scars, knotted hair and fat lips - the kid was a fuckin' Pit Bull. A wiry little sonofabitch that could be knocked down but never kept there. He's the dude in football that came gunnin' up from the defensive backfield to concuss the big 200lb-something fathead as soon as he crossed the line of scrimmage. Not arrogant, not antagonistic, just there and quick to snap at the first whiff of confrontation. Punch remind me of Mike Bode. Thin, sloppy and fast enough to still be sharp - they teeter back and forth heavy on the hardcore and punk, bonded all together with bits of grind. Kind of like the negative image of Extortion's formula if you will. Imagine a very diluted Blood I Bleed, with all of the same effect. Sandblasted high-screech vocals over high tune power-chords and occasional blast-beats; it's honestly nothing you haven't heard before, but the quick one-two-three-four-five jabs one after another after another of quick bursts of less-than-a-minute-long songs serve the beating quite effectively. It's not a cattle-gun to the temporal lobe, but a barrage of quick crazy fists leaving you disorientated and fatigued. With the exception of 'Let Me Forget' and 'Positively God Free' the formula to the songs on Push Pull is pretty predictable by the half-way point, blasting instruments slow to bits of hardcore breakdowns (not those kind of breakdowns), but the album is short enough (13 songs in 17 minutes) to keep it all still in the zone. There has been a come-uppance of bands like this, with hardcore foundations tinkering in old-school punk and grind - Trash Talk comes to mind - but Punch deliver with an honest, not-too-produced sound that helps give it the foam in the corners of the mouth. My niche for this kind of sound is a pretty small space to fill, and I've only listened to the album a couple of times, but I'd make space on my Ipod for this little bag of razorblades. If you've got 15 minutes to spare give it a listen.