Fried e/M, Modern World (Lumpy / La Vida Es Un Mus, 2020)
A few years back I had an idea for a project where I’d collect pieces of what I called “punk poetry”, but then gave it up because it was too hard to actually define. Rude, dirty, blunt language used in an evocative way? Ugly feelings expressed through ugly words that somehow achieve beauty through shock? Random, drunken ramblings opening windows on profound truths? Yeah, I don’t know. Punk poetry. You get it. Like Fried e/M lyrics.
Of course their unpretentious, sneering, self-deprecatingly funny lyrics wouldn’t work as well if they weren’t backed by snotty hardcore punk in its purest form. “Lobotomy” (“I don’t want no therapy, I just want lobotomy / ‘Cause I can’t deal with being me”) sounds like a ‘Group Sex’ outtake, while “Pleasure OD” beautifully channels the spirit of early Black Flag or the Germs.
I know I’m always going on about nostalgia (I’m not, but I do get annoyed when old fucks try to push that “punk’s not as good as it used to be” shit). In a world where I can type “Dicks” anywhere in any moment and listen to The Originals (well maybe I should add a couple words to that Google search), playing old school-worshipping punk rock requires special talent, and Fried e/M have it. It’s got that dejà-vu feel but in a good way (I had to google “Turquoise Soup" because I thought it was a cover, but it turns out it just sounds like a classic—and I’d heard it on their earlier EP).
Fucking “Capitalist Eyes” sounds like Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers! “Modern World”? Crucifucks-ian. “You’re an Internet victim of the modern world / I don’t want to be / In this modern world”. Do you get it? “I’m gonna die laughing / Laughing at this world / Laughing at this world I never wanted / Laughing at this world I never needed”. More poetry? “Hippie child better learn to throw a brick”. Are you pacing around your living room shaking your fists and letting out little yelps of approval? I most definitely am.
Click here to listen to Modern World on Bandcamp.
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