#stud count

[studcount]

[mysocialyawkwardhumps]

Got the hawk back finally <3

[lameasfuck77]

[girlsloadedgun]

Stud Count - Telepathic Love

Bandcamp HERE

[dustedmagazine]

Stud Count — S/T (Smartpunk)

Philadelphia’s Stud Count come on like tuff punks, but at heart, the band may yearn to craft tuneful pop songs. On this self-titled debut LP, you can hear Stud Count working through some of the themes and gestures that have informed successful pop-punk acts like Pup or fellow Philadelphians Modern Baseball: big songs about bigger feelings, with intimations of teenage unhappiness (even trauma) at metaphorical arm’s length; flailing or failed attempts at romance are narrated with more immediate dramatics. All of those bummer sentiments get articulated alongside major chords and melodic structures with plenty of hooks and slick guitar lines. And Stud Count holds a couple of ace cards in Norelle Green’s pipes and presence. She’s a born frontwoman (person?), and she’s figuring out how to move through her intonations and vocal affects with increasing assurance. “Through my Window” is among the most emphatic examples of those dulcet ambitions. She’s breathy-confessional, bouncy-urgent, icy-indifferent, sometimes all in the same verse — she’s not Debbie Harry yet, but she’s working on it.

Like Blondie in late 1977, Stud Count can still crack wise and play dirty (and this reviewer prefers it when they do). “The Way I Walk” and “That’s How (I Get It)” both clock in way under two minutes and capture Philly’s grit and pace. In the refrain to “The Way I Walk,” Green shouts, “Dirt! Dirt! Gimme the dirt! / Put me to work!” She just about transforms her subjection to the city’s unforgiving demands into assertions of her own power, and it’s exciting to hear. She doesn’t have the same range in this declamatory style; like Eve Libertine or more recently Jackie from Material Support, Green compromises her vocal modulations in the shorter, punchier songs for force and legibility, so you can hear the words — and not everyone can sing like Penelope Houston. It’s also the case that lead guitarist Max D’ambra can’t resist including some glib soloing. Even when Stud Count is playing fast and hard, the band wants to demonstrate its glossy chops. 

They may be at their best when they attempt to synthesize the record’s dominant modes, exploring the challenging space in which pop’s pleasures effortlessly emerge from punk’s menacing slouch. That’s a hard trick to pull off. The Ramones were past masters of the form, but they far more frequently expressed poppy delight and punky venom in separate statements; seamlessly integrated songs like “Beat on the Brat” and “You’re Gonna Kill that Girl” are transporting experiences, precisely because of their rarity. Stud Count approaches that sort of gloriously subverted anti-hit tune with “Pleasure Center.” The hard stuff and the shamelessly sugary occur in rapidly rotating sections of the song, but that seems like a calculated move, expressing shifting “pain” and “pleasure,” and a lover whose perfect fusion of those two feelings remains a mystery. The song is smartly organized and delivered with pitch-perfect intensity. Stud Count may be more drawn toward pop punk’s sensibility, but they can punch and snarl, too. It’s pretty great when they land a clean shot; when you’re face down in the dirt (gimme it), you remember that it has its own peculiar sweetness. 

Jonathan Shaw

[postmortemgirlfriend]

stud count @ farewell

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Stud Count release fierce melodic punk single ‘Talkin’ 2 You’

Today Philly based melodic post-punk rockers Stud Count reveal a show-stopping first listen of their upcoming debut self-titled LP with their single ‘Talkin’ 2 You.’ This track marks the beginning of Stud Count’s new era of music as they announce their signing with Smartpunk Records for the release of their upcoming album in 2022.

The track is a brazen, high energy love song about finding “the one”: “This song is about finding that person - your forever person. All the waiting, tears, and doubt solved in the context of permanence,” explains vocalist Norelle.

Counting such influences as Wipers, Garbage, and Husker Dü, Stud Count is a new Philadelphia-based band featuring familiar faces. The fresh endeavor is composed of current/former members of Drill Sergeant, The Dividing Line, Academy Order, Fluoride, Leashes, and Fixation. Combining an abrasive post-punk edge with a melodic undercurrent beneath it all, Stud Count features drummer Bret Hart, vocalist Norelle Green, Max D’ambra and Matthew Green on guitars.

[sdst77]

I got bored tonight so I made this.