HiFi Handgrenades

This is fun, catchy, dirty punk rock that would make Blake Swarzenbach proud. Just the right amount of rock’n’roll vitriol and earnest pop sensibility, Carry On is another fine addition to the current musical canon of aggressively mid-tempo punk that kids with beards and cut-off shorts always seem to (justifiably) love. Comprised of ex-members of the Fags, Suicide Machines and Grande Nationals, HiFi Handgrenades don’t sound much like any of their members’ past outfits. This is an obvious return to punk pasts, which comes in the form of the Dag Nasty-inspired title track and the Milo Goes to College bite of "Around Again.” Despite production credits from some big time rock and roll producers, Carry On maintains an appropriate balance between clarity and grit, although it occasionally slides a little too close into radio rock clean. That said, any fans of the modern purveyors of Jawbreaker-style pop punk will get stoked on this, especially when they realise it perfectly packs its ten songs into a tight 22 minutes.