Cassette Review // Public Interest "Between" (Gone With The Weed)

€5 //
Edition of 70 //
https://gonewiththeweed.bandcamp.com/album/between //

Right away, this comes out rocking with drum machines and guitars.   I feel, at first, like it has a new wave sense about it, but this almost makes me think it is somewhere along the lines of punk and even just rock music.  There aren't really a lot of artists I can compare this with- which is good- as it makes me think mostly of bands I haven't heard in years like Vagina Missile Crisis and Dana Fowler And The. 

Through the distortion we are told to "Sleep in the waiting room" and there are also these laser whirrs and shots behind this all.   "It can be done / but not like that" makes me feel like this has an electronic punk vibe, though I'm not sure if "electronic punk" is a genre or if it is I'm not sure what it means.   I feel like "electronic punk" would be part of Warped Tour (RIP) and Public Interest isn't really something that crowd would like, which is fine.   There is a more deliberate rock vibe here.

The thing is, I hear punk in here not so much in the music being played but rather the way it's being played.   It's more about the attitude of these songs and less like this sounding like Sex Pistols (though in some ways it kind of does)   And yet when I think about how it is based more on the punl *attitude* than *sound* the song "Epoxy" says to "put all the parts back together" and the general mood of punk is to tear it all down.

Underneath it all, on a song like "Flies In The Cemetery", you can hear these killer guitar riffs which sound like something more along the lines of the radio and for some reason the first band which came to my mind was Interpol.   "Passing Glances" begins like an old Doors song with that rockin' blues vibe.   I also realize during this song that the vocals can remind me of Violent Femmes or maybe even Cloud Nothings.

You can really hear the drum machines and bass line on the final song.    Overall, these songs have such a unique sound because they feel like they could have been recorded in a bedroom- which would give them that "bedroom rock" sound (Is there "bedroom punk"?) but then they also have all these rocking guitars and drums that make it seem like it could easily be played out in arenas.  I suppose that is the punk aspect of it though, as it could be for a hundred people or a hundred thousand people.