Night Owls – Fun and Games 7” EP (Barbarossa/Hex)
This debut 7” by Syracuse’s Night Owls is essentially very muscular pop-punk with just a pinch of grit on the vocals and the type of professionally-thick, dual-guitar riffs that causes an automatic mental association with Y2K, when we were seeing two things come to fruition: the popularity highpoint/creativity low-point of Turbonegro/Hellacopters & Pals and the first widespread instance of overnight Thin Lizzy and AC/DC love by ‘90s cruster, sXe, and post-hardcore dudes. Instead of the Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu wishful-thinking found in the bio-blurb on the Barbarossa Records site, Night Owls could easily be a holdover or recently discovered never-was from approximately ten years ago, rooted across the country in the Pacific Northwest. The introductory paragraph or review in Hit List almost feels real: “No one really remembers who brought the beat-up Johnny the Fox LP, the red Grand Funk album, or Montrose s/t to the Food Not Bombs holiday party last year, but once the overpowering aroma of cultivated B.O. and lentil flatulence was replaced by cheap tree liquor and grade-A rock, it wouldn’t be long before a hard-rock bond was formed between Gabi from Fat Fucks Better, Ray and Porter from Human Parvo, and Steven from grindologists Half-Eaten Ant-Covered Tampon. That bond is what we now know as Night Owls.” Before this Night Owls record – the real one that’s supposed to be the subject of this review – comes away with little more than an unfair dismissal, repeated listens have revealed what is probably a band of serious adults who are definitely as trained as a band can possibly be in the non-art of what was once disgraced with the sub-genre term of “Punk ‘n’ Roll” – a fact proven by an especially exciting minute or so of guitar swells and solos that rises up from the (B-)side-long “Germaphobe” with such confidence that the song may very well become a staple over the next week or two. A sonic monument to the down-stroked and blurrily-picked Gibson/Epiphone SG that behaves as though such a thing has never made it to record before. In this case, the quasi-obliviousness is a good thing. On red, white, and black vinyl. (http://www.barbarossarecords.bigcartel.com) (http://hexrecords.bigcartel.com)
(Andrew Earles)
