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Portland’s Macho Boys are many things: A punk band. Feminists. Partial wrestling enthusiasts, etcetera etcetera. But as far as most listeners are concerned, Macho Boys should be commended for being one thing in particular: 80’s hardcore revivalists. As the group’s name would imply, Macho Boys’ debut LP is a non-stop spasm of light, pummeling rhythms in the vein of highly-revered hardcore classics, specifically the likes of Minor Threat, and boasts a sharp, angular sound accordingly. In a Coors-fueled love letter – à la the great Texas Rattlesnake –, Macho Boys storm through their 16-minute runtime with jagged discharges of puerile hardcore beatitude, not only managing to recapture the youthful energy of the treasured hardcore acts of yesteryear, but also make the sound their own through inflammatory, equally-playful tonality needed to better suit the social commentary at hand… as well as an honorary hymn dedicated to the one and only Stone Cold Steve Austin, of course. Needless to say, this record is an absolute blast; and people say you can’t catch lightning in a bottle.
Our take: Debut vinyl from this band out of Portland, and man is it a ripper. I feel like if No Way Records was still around that Brandon and Lauren would have been jumping at the chance to release material by this band, as it’s very much in the spirit of early 80s USHC revival that that label kicked off… I mean, Macho Boys even cover “Slam” by Decadence, the most mysterious band on the This Is Boston Not LA comp! Given that this kind of stripped-down early 80s hardcore has a pretty well-established formula, the key questions are 1. whether the band gets the formula right (they do!) and 2. whether the production and performance capture the band’s energy effectively (it does!). So many releases these days try so hard to be a particular thing, and often in a band’s quest to sound exactly like Swedish hardcore circa 1983 or early French oi! or whatever they forget to just be punk… Macho Boys didn’t forget. They are punk as fuck, and you’ll feel punk as fuck when you listen to it. If you still follow this style (i.e. if you bought the new Career Suicide album) you should really check this out… it’s truly something special. Highly recommended.