Has it really been 10 years since The Lawrence Arms hit the streets and had us all singing along? I remember ‘A Guided Tour of Chicago’ from when I was in my first year or university, it came out about the time Blink were starting to blow up and I was getting into NOFX, Pennywise and other EpiFat bands. That lead me on to Asian Man and Lawrence Arms and the rest is history. And while I don’t listen to too many ‘punk’ bands any more, I can’t help but dip into my iTunes and blast some of the classics to help me reminisce. Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan’s dual vocal battles on this EP remind me why I should listen to this band more often.
This isn’t the band’s best work, but as an EP it’s a timely reminder of how great they are. There’s the Chicago feel the band have always had, pop-punk riffs and gruff-ish vocals that sound like Alkaline Trio should sound like. ‘The Slowest Drink…’ is just a great song, while ‘Demons’ has this huge singalong hook, just like all the best Larry Arms tunes. They’re a band that don’t need to rely on dumbing down their music or turning up the melodies to be catchy. They just do what they do and, for me, they’re severely underrated in doing it.