With an entirely unique blend of old school punk and modern rock Teen Mortgage create a stupefyingly slick riff driven classic. Driven by the relentless drums and turbo charged by the growling guitars its a sound that will break down the door to your inner sanctum and exist in perpetuity inside your skull space.
The drums make themselves known from the outset and they provide neck breaking velocity and raw primal force that continues through the entire track. The guitar joins in with a juddering fuzzy little riff that acts as a kind of dissonance streaking through that acts as the perfect bed for the vocals and lyrics.
‘Smoked‘ in true punk fashion exists with one foot skanking out in the music scene and the other firmly on top of its skateboard. Lyrically the track dances around with the concept of falling down or bailing on a trick only to get up, dust yourself off, and try again. There is a beauty to the scars we acquire through failure and ask any skater to show you theirs and they can probably tell you the exact trick that caused it, and also how good it felt when they next landed it.
This two piece make a truly staggering amount of noise considering. The drums and guitar seem to be egging each other on and it reaches fevered pitches thanks to that friendly jostling bravado. It’s an intricately woven chaotic sound that reaches decibels further than it perhaps would due to the duality of the sound. There is not a single note or beat out of place in this maelstrom of jagged edges.
This is punk. This is hard rock. This is the bastard mutant child of both, grinning through misshapen lips, cigarette hanging out the side of its mouth, playing a devilish bongo on one side of its skateboard deck then kickflipping it to shred a sick little guitar solo on the single string strung between the trucks. It’s simple, it’s stripped back, it’s sumptuous sonic bliss.
Check out the equally righteous EP LIFE/DEATH on the Teen Mortgage Bandcamp.
Words by Matt Miles
