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Anxious, mean noise punk from Richmond. The four-piece’s second full length, Overripe, is defined by themes of self loathing, grief, grudges, and navigating mental health disorders.
Our take: While Gumming’s two cassettes were good, those of us who have seen the band play live knew their next release would be something special. Their debut LP, Overripe, is the brilliant record we’d all hoped for. Like Flipper or No Trend in their prime, Gumming takes discordant anti-riffs and twists them into songs that groove and lurch with precision and power far beyond your typical punk band. Gumming’s members seem to breathe with one breath, and when you look at the crowd during their sets, you see a sea of heads bouncing in sync with those deep grooves, in stark contrast to the near-chaos your typical hardcore band inspires. A band this great needs a great frontperson, and Gumming delivers here too. When Emilie hisses “they’re coming for us,” I believe her, and I’m scared. The lyrics are also brilliant, reaching deep into society’s polluted runoff and surfacing monsters we don’t want to see but can’t stop looking at. Overripe’s title might refer to fruit that’s gone bad or to how long it took Gumming to make it to vinyl, but in this case that fruit has fermented into a deliciously acidic vinegar, the perfect dressing for the shit salad that is today’s world.