Woahnows - The Joy Disorder EP (Big Scary Monsters Recording
Company)
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| Woahnows - The Joy Disorder |
Release Date: 17th August 2013
I'm pretty proud to be a Plymouth
lad, born and bred. It's a great place to grow up and a beautiful part of the
world but as a teenager with an unhealthy obsession with music there wasn't
much to keep me going. Even starting an intensely mediocre band did nothing to
quench my thirst for music so I looked further afield. Years later, I've
returned to my hometown and I'm so happy that things have taken a turn for the
better, with a thriving scene and venues popping up all over the place. One man
responsible for a healthy chunk of that is Dan James, proprietor of the city's
premier rock venue the White Rabbit and enthusiastic bassist with hardcore trio
Woahnows. This latest EP is a 5 track stormer that is as unrelenting as it is captivating.
Opener 'Low Machs' hits you like
a truck to the side of your car when you thought you were the only one on the
road. Reminiscent or the Ataris or Engine 88, bands that I grew up listening
to, this is slick, powerful and absorbing stuff. Singer and guitarist Tim
Rowling-Parker (poshest name in punk?) spent some time as the bassman for
Plymouth folk-punkers Crazy Arm and you can hear some of the influence in there
but this is more guttural stuff, more from the belly. 'Grey Matters' is a
choppy little number with nice little drum flicks and a rolling bassline that
powers the song forward in to clashing cymbals and thrashing guitars. At the
half way point, 'Painfully Safe' is perhaps the most in-your-face song in this
collection, with a Reuben-esque riff that embraces the loud/quiet technique
beautifully and will have many a head bobbing before making crowds explode in
to frenzy of sweat, limbs and cider. The shouted a cappella section in the middle
is full of emotion and protest in a way that Frank Turner can oft be heard -
not necessarily the best voices in the world but by God do they mean it and
that's what really matters, right?
Taking things off on a slight tangent,
'Karuna' (the Sanskrit word for compassion), Woahnows show themselves to be a
versatile beast as well as a powerful one. The almost prog-rock time signatures
and changes in direction keep you guessing at every turn which is, I have to
say, a refreshing thing from a punk band of any description. Final and title
track, 'The Joy Disorder', is not what I had suspected but then again I had
wondered if it was a tribute to what Bernard Sumner and Peter Hooke did in the
short period between Joy Division and New Order. Instead, it's a guitar driven
two and a half minute rousing call to arms that climaxes with the refrain
"Nothing ever happens til somebody makes it happen". Woahnows have
got passion, talent and big ol' punk balls which makes them, in my book, pretty
damn hot. What's more, they're doing their EP launch on the seafront in
Plymouth in the open air and anyone who's ever been there knows that takes some
cajones - if the weather doesn't get you, the shower of tomb stoners will!
More information: https://www.facebook.com/WOAHNOWS
Live Dates:
17th August - The Hoe, Plymouth (Open Air EP Release Show)
19th August - Power Lunches, London
26th August - Deadpunk Exchange, Bristol (w/Sick Of It All)
30th August - White Rabbit, Plymouth (w/Tall Ships)
3rd September - Bici Bar, Milan
4th September - Manhatten Pub, Turin
12th September - Stage Club, Larissa
13th September - Klub Fest, Belgrade
15th September - Biker's Kitchen, Novi Sad
16th September - Mali Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb
17th September - Arena, Vienna
18th September - Weststadthalle, Essen
19th September - Privat, Cologne
20th September - Secret Show, Hannover
21st September - Rockcafe Asgard, Beverwijk
22nd September - De Onderbroek, Nijmegen
23rd September - Plan B, Biefeld
24th September - The Baracke, Munster
25th September - Wild Rover, Aachen
26th September - Weststadthalle, Essen
27th September - Landshut, Wintergarten
28th September - Lederer, Regensburg
29th September - Sub, Graz