Cassette Review // COACH CAMPA "IF YOU'VE GOT THE HAMMER" (Already Dead Tapes)

$7 //
Edition of 100 //
https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/if-youve-got-the-hammer //

When I see the name Coach Campa, I immediately think of Tommaso Ciampa and because my mind is weird I kind of forget about the "coach" part and go into this place where it's actually "Camp Ciampa" and that is a lot like that old animated series "Camp Candy" only the role of camp counselor played by the late, great John Candy is being played by Tommaso Ciampa (which I think would be a great animated series for The WWE Network, by the way)  I feel a little bit better when I see song titles such as "Learning How to Fall off a 20 Ft. Ladder" and "MUSCLE BUSTER" because it makes me feel like if someone in Coach Campa is reading this they won't "wtf" at my wrestling references.

The group of Coach Campa is made up of Ethan Campa on drums and his Blithe and Pinko
bandmate Jared Flores, Chris Dunaway from Giant Battle Monster and MOTHS and Discogs didn't tell me a lot about Jacob Gonzalez, Abel Gonzalez oe Stephen Flores.  This sound is tricky to place because when you think of something being fast paced with the drumming but then there are horns in it, you create this sound of jazz punk.  There aren't really any artists I can think of who have made music like this as it isn't quite the same as say Sweep the Leg Jonny.   It's almost fast enough to where it could be ska, but it doesn't have that reggae rhythm so it's not.

This does flip the switch at one point though, the horns bow out and it becomes rather fast paced with heavily distorted guitars.  This is punk in a grunge way and then it almost sounds like sludge.   It's actually really something you'd want to put on when you're skating- that perfect line between Black Sabbath and Bad Brains.   By the end of the first side, these two sounds of the heavy distortion and horns come together and it's not something that can be as simply defined as "jazz punk" but it's unlike anything I've heard before so I don't really have a term to describe it.   The trumpet seems to create a sound like laser blasts before the first side comes to an end.

On the flip side those laser-like sounds return but they begin to feel like they are expanding.  If you can consider the first side to be a punk side of whatever type of jazz/metal combination this is, then the second side is more of the experimental side.   There is a lighter sound on this side where it feels like almost the opposite of what was going on during the first side with that heavy distortion.  Yet through it all, the horns and drums seem to remain the same, so I suppose it's just the guitars that change. 

I once knew someone back in the early '00's who didn't like ska to the point where they wouldn't listen to anything with horns in it.   You make a blanket statement like that and you can miss out on some great music.  I hope that they are listening to music with horns in it now, some twenty years later, but even if you're one of those "I don't really like jazz" or whatever genre- this isn't the same.   It's unlike anything I've ever heard before and I can type the band names and genre codes up there in hopes of attracting people who like that sort of thing but if you're one of those who doesn't like those things, still give this a shot because at least you can say you heard something different.