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Second EP from Chicago’s Tarantula. The band features former members of Culo with the additional layer of the always popular bass player. Musically, Tarantula is just as catchy as Culo, a little less mid tempo, with a more obvious classic punk influence. Great jacket art from DrugFace as per usual. Mastered by Geza X. Killer 7”.
Our take: Second 7” from Chicago’s Tarantula, and it continues in the vein of their excellent first record. Tarantula are exploring a space that not a lot of bands are interested in these days… if the words didn’t have such terrible associations I would call this “melodic hardcore,” i.e. music that has the speed and the gritty sound of early 80s hardcore but relies on the more traditional pop song structure of classic punk rock. The only band I can think of off the top of my head who is doing something similar is Night Birds, but Tarantula is a lot tougher and meaner-sounding. While one might consider the idea of catchy, song-oriented hardcore to be completely played out, Tarantula toe the line between poppy and aggressive so perfectly that their music feels fresh. You can hear the influences quite clearly—the snotty, aggressive punk of bands like the Angry Samoans and Zero Boys, the earnest drive of early 80s midwest hardcore like Articles of Faith and early Husker Du, and a dash of Devo / Geza X-style irreverence—but they’re swirled together in a way that’s just different enough from anything I’ve heard before to be noteworthy.