MP3: Epidemics - Never grow up
Pop-punk is the music of my adolescence. Growing up in the East Bay meant that the shadow of Lookout! Records hung heavy: Green Day, Mr. T Experience, Screeching Weasel, yadda yadda -- I was way deep into that stuff when I was 15/16. It's quite fitting then that a band like Epidemics out of Umeå have a song called "Never grow up" because to my ears, this is the music of youth and willful naivety. Naturally, it all goes back to the Ramones, whose semi-ironic bonehead stance personified/s the genre. Epidemics don't really do much to tinker with convention, but that's fine. Strong vocal harmonies and charming single-note guitar melodies seem like a bit of a lost art these days, so I'm glad to hear it done well. I'm sure 4th-rate pop-punk acts are still a plague, but since I don't play in that scene anymore, I'm blissfully insulated from hearing them. If there's more bands like Epidemics out there though, I'm all about it. It makes me feel like a kid again.
Epidemics - Never grow up