With each waking day, when hope is high and all things are possible, the song sadly remains the same: bright moments in modern music are still far and few between. Nowhere is this more evident than in the punk scene, where its pop varietal seems to have more lives than famed horror villain Jason.
But alas, fine friends, The Briefs have appeared on the horizon like an oasis, with sparkling irreverence and ‘70s punk and new wave sensibilities at the ready for all those parched and craving something better. The band’s BYO Records’ debut, Sex Objects, hits the stores on June 29, and you won’t want to be without this gem, as it’s sure to be among the best of 2004.
Straight from the streets of Seattle, The Briefs is a quartet of seasoned sods with enough sense of punk history to pull off a homogenous concoction that is at once loud and fast, cocky and quirky, angry and aggressive, political and profound, witty and without pretense. In short, The Briefs is a modern-day new wave punk outfit that plays to the strengths of its influences without being cute, cliché or a once-off throwback act.
Isolating which tracks hit and which ones miss is an impossible task, since all 14 tracks shine with a personality all their own. “No More Presidents” and “Destroy the USA” pay homage to the fist-pumping anarchistic assaults that made punk real in the first place, while “Killed By Ants” and “Shoplifting At Macys” remind us all that too much angst makes Johnny a bitter boy.
Already with umpteen 7-inch releases, Sex Objects is the third full-length album from The Briefs, thus illustrating that its formula is no mistake. And in an era where many of today’s bands first heard the oldies on CD (as opposed to vinyl), the boys of The Briefs are clearly the bright-eyed, old school bastards the punk world has needed.
