Spectreview: The Paranoyds – Carnage Bargain

-LIGHT SLATE BLUE-

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“I was hungry so I ate my words
Ate ’em all, it was all a blur
Last night, uncontrollably
I binged then I fell asleep”

In a post-Internet world, people are pairing sub-genres together all over the place in a demented form of alchemy, seeing what sticks and what doesn’t. Sometimes these combinations are based in classic parings, like the rawness of garage with the uptempo stability of surf, and Los Angeles four-piece The Paranoyds take this complementary pair and run with it on their newest LP, Carnage Bargain. The band hits with the force of a truck, blasting through opener “Face First” and the chaotic “Laundry” while reducing the energy (but not the force) on the title track. There are no gimmicks here, no trace of harsh delay on the vocals or over-compressed Strokes guitar, just straightforward punk sentiment that gains power from the raw quality of its parts. Guitarist Lexi Funston trades off vocal duties with bassist Staz Lindes, occasionally delving into pitch-perfect harmonies, while the lyrical content remains in the house of fellow progressive punk acts Tacocat and Summer Cannibals in its righteous callouts of commonplace evils. The twist is in the creativity of their finger-placing; “carnage bargain” is such a great descriptor of the impetus behind a certain kind of mindless behavior, while “Girlfriend Degree” sums up the bewilderingly-aspirational passivity underlying traditional feminine gender roles in two words. Carnage Bargain is full of these gems, and the band gamely carries their weight over playful guitar melodies and constantly-shifting dynamics, making it a consistently great example of surf-garage done right.

Recommended for aggressively using a Coinstar.