Real Punk Rock Still Lives… in Cork

It seems that I’ve been getting sent a good deal of punk rock to review as of late… and, trust me, I welcome it. I’m still a punk rocker, even if I wear a tie to work everyday… no matter what happens in my life, punk rock will always be something I enjoy and relate to. Stanton’s Grave’s Homemade Demos is no exception to this rule.

With gruff punk vocals ala Hot Water Music, this self-produced collection of tracks is pretty solid. Most of the tracks are genuinely good and the lack of professional production doesn’t seem to hurt the tunes much, if at all. In fact, there are some true gems on here like “A New Hope” and “Seig Heil Barbie”. There’s not a ton of deviation from the standard punk rock format, but who says there needs to be.

The band is at there best with the brash punk anthems, the small deviations the band makes on this format don’t seem to showcase their talents nearly as much, for example one of the weaker tracks on the collection is “TV Zombie”, a slower track that showcases the bands flaws more than their strengths.

There is a lot of promise in a young punk band that can put together a couple years of tracks and come out sounding this good. While it seems the band probably has aways to go, they have a good starting off point. These kids from Cork (yes, that Cork) are well worth a listen… and with some hard work and maturation, they can expect bigger things than they’d ever imagined.