YUZE BOYS-DEMO TAPE

YUZE BOYS 

DEMO TAPE

RELEASED ON GNARLY AS I WANNA BE RECORDS

I promise I'm not just going to review my friends on here. But sometimes your friends release really good music.

Yuze Boys are a fairly new band in Columbus, but they've all been around the proverbial block.  Alex Mussawir the singer was/is in an exceptional band called Goners, Jeff Kleinman the guitarist has been in too many bands for me to list, so we'll just list Nervosas for now. Winston Hightower, drummer, plays in a band called Splashin' Safari and bassist Kyle Bergamo was in bands Checkmate and Making Friends.

They recently released a 6-song EP on cassette through Gnarly As I Wanna Be Records. 

Sonically, it sounds like a forgotten 80's punk band's self-recorded release. Like some band that would have been playing with the Adolescents in '81 in California. Like a band that would have one of your favorite songs in a Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack. It's great. The first two songs, "Nothing 2 Give" and "Recurring Dreams" are both weirdo hardcore punk rippers. In "Recurring Dreams" Mussawir poses  his disaffected thought in an even more disaffected tone:

ever feel like there are two tv screens

like where your eyes used to be?

and all you can see are the same things on repeat

like movie screens playing endlessly

like recurring dreams

The third track is a significant change, and my favorite song on the release, I think. "Picking Sides" is the most melodic track here. Kleinman is hammering away through a catchy as hell progression, Hightower is keeping rhythm by mashing away at his piccolo snare, Bergamo is coolly dancing around on a upper fret bass line, and Mussawir is staring into your eyes (figuratively) and gushing out his warped worldview.

Mussawir, (Aaron Watkins photobomb), Kleinman, Hightower, Bergamo

The fourth track "Negative Thought Process" is a really cool song too. Reminds me of some '78 post punk stuff, with the 16th note hi hat beat intro, but gets significantly more aggressive, like Swell Maps meets Naked Raygun with the singer of Iceage fronting the band or something. Like with every other song on the release, Mussawir creates an interesting perspective through his observational lyrics.

this is my brain folding in on itself

Look! I have no use for it now

it's so dull!

 "Mexican Supermarket" is a cool song, an atmospheric David Lynch movie scene-esque vignette track. The last song,"Any Parties/Time Stands Still" is a hazy and nightmarish sequence, led by Bergamo's warped bass lines but bursting into fits of truculence. 

Go check this tape out and check out the band themselves if you're in Columbus or they perform near you. They're also awesome folks.

Just don't ever eat salsa or bananas in front of Jeff Kleinman.