Cassette Review // The New Poor "Demo" (C/Site Recordings)
There was a time back in the 1990's when someone would recognize you as being that person who had a 'zine and they'd hand you a demo tape at a show. I don't want to feel like one of those older people who think everything was better back in their day, but I do miss that type of community around music. You'd both be at the same show and that kind forged this mutual respect that you just don't get these days with emails. But, yes, in the late 1990's I definitely could have imagined someone handing me a demo tape such as this, although the quality of the recording here is far too good.
A bass line starts things off right into this hardcore / punk sound like Descendents or Bad Brains. It just hits hard and has these break downs, but by the second song you also feel those sing along parts. In the most vast of comparisons this can remind me both of CIV and Zipper, to the point at least where The New Poor could play shows with either. The delivery of the vocals is more rapid as opposed to screaming, which sets it apart, and as we reach the end of the first side the song "Dreamers" says: "Sick of stupid dreamers / Sick of stupid dreams".
Big, crunchy gutiars take us into the second side. On "Something Not to Speak Of" they name drop New Haven, which is cool. There's a little bit of this interference in between that song and "Shit Happens", while "Shit Happens" is about exactly what you think it is. "Signal" ends this cassette with a bit more of a calmer, singing in monotone way. It almost feels like a chant, but it definitely has this way about it that it can get stuck in your head.
While I love this style of hardcore and punk, one of the things which always hits me when I hear it is just how much it felt like there was a time when labels such as Victory Records were really pushing for it and now it seems to be heard less and less. Granted, there is this more recent film called "Dinner In America" which has this sound in it, but it just feels like when you hear this sound now you really have to hold onto it because you don't want it to slip away like I feel all those wasted years have since I was at The Webster seeing Shut Down.
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