The first full length LP from St. John's-based MAANS features nine tracks of loose and jangly pop punk, packed with combustible and infectious choruses that threaten to build and grow to a critical mass at all times. While the songs on MAANS have a distinct local flavour, referencing rough and tumble neighbourhoods ("To Live Or Die In Rabbit Town"), empty Facebook comment wars ("Get Off"), millennial anxieties ("Pizza Pie") and ridiculous, incredible Newfie traditions ("Boiled Trout / Discount Liquor Store"), they all remain broadly accessible.
MAANS is the culmination of years of hard work and experiences gained by the band's members in various side-projects within the St. John's punk scene. As is befitting of a band featuring members that are no strangers to prodigious musical output, many of the songs on MAANS are anthems for the sort of "who gives a shit lets just get it done" DIY ethic that is so pervasive in St. John's. Still, the songs, which were previously buried under layers of fuzz, are given more room to breathe on this LP. The production work on MAANS is much more refined than on the band's previous demos.
Standout track "Future World" finds MAANS living up to their full potential, turning their ideas into a chaotic and incendiary good time. As the spaghetti western-tinged intensity of the guitar play between the band's members and frontman Micah Brown on "Future World" escalates, Brown's repeated and sporadic vocal outbursts grow to envelope a burrowing chorus of whoas and ooohs before finally blowing up into one cathartic scream. By shifting away from scrappy, bedroom rock towards a clear and definitive pop sound, MAANS have released an excellent debut.
(Bird Law Records)MAANS is the culmination of years of hard work and experiences gained by the band's members in various side-projects within the St. John's punk scene. As is befitting of a band featuring members that are no strangers to prodigious musical output, many of the songs on MAANS are anthems for the sort of "who gives a shit lets just get it done" DIY ethic that is so pervasive in St. John's. Still, the songs, which were previously buried under layers of fuzz, are given more room to breathe on this LP. The production work on MAANS is much more refined than on the band's previous demos.
Standout track "Future World" finds MAANS living up to their full potential, turning their ideas into a chaotic and incendiary good time. As the spaghetti western-tinged intensity of the guitar play between the band's members and frontman Micah Brown on "Future World" escalates, Brown's repeated and sporadic vocal outbursts grow to envelope a burrowing chorus of whoas and ooohs before finally blowing up into one cathartic scream. By shifting away from scrappy, bedroom rock towards a clear and definitive pop sound, MAANS have released an excellent debut.