Dad Punchers

Dad Punchers

Written by: PP on 18/02/2013 23:47:37

Dad Punchers is the side project of Elliot Babin, whose main duties are found behind the drum kit in emotional hardcore legends-in-the-making Touché Amoré. You might therefore assume that his side project also revolves around tormented emotional delivery, and to an extent you are right. But whereas his main project likes to scream and shred their emotional distress at the listener through clever usage of the quiet/loud dynamic, Dad Punchers are all about original emo in the vein of Everyone Everywhere, Braid, Mineral, The Get Up Kids, American Football and those sort of bands.

The self-titled debut album basically consist of quiet, melancholically ringing guitars , which meet highly nostalgia-driven, emotional lyrics in an exceptionally relaxed and laid-back atmosphere. Babin even sings on the opening track "Tire Swing": "Feeling nostalgic to the point where you feel sick", and he's not far from the truth. His delivery is borderline whiny, but in a good way, where it feels heartfelt and almost as if he's crying out his lyrical universe and really means it as well. And like his main band, the lyrical universe is the absolute strength of Dad Punchers, because they way the quiet guitars are juxtaposed against touching lyrics on, for instance, "Cul De Sac" is back-chilling for any 20something young adult in the late stages of growing up:

The time when the house you grew up in / Is referred to as "your parents house" again. / And soon you'll find, / You won't be back to visit the house for the summer time, /

You'll be all moved on.

And the block that you made your friends on / Is now just another street. / And the cul de sac where you learned to ride a bike / Is now another inconvenient street.

The way Babin writes about growing up and forgetting about where home is resonates similarly as The Wonder Years' on their brilliant "Suburbia I've Given You All And Now I'm Nothing". It has a sense of realism to it, yet a touch of quirkiness in the wording that makes it stick out, and underlines that he's arguably as good of a lyricist as Jeremy Bolm of his main band.

So this is what you should take with you from Dad Punchers: great, touching lyrics, and an intensely emotional soundscape that resembles all of the 90s greats as well as the revivalist original emo movement of recent years. What's better, their songs are fantastic, well written, and catchy in a melancholically awesome manner.

8

Download: Cul De Sac, Tire Swing
For the fans of: Everyone Everywhere, Braid, American Football, The Get Up Kids, Mineral, Tigers Jaw
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 18.12.2012
Sea Legs

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