Los Angeles-based stingers Militarie gun are seemingly unstoppable. One year after EP, we see the boys hit the ground running with life under the gun. With them setting on our shores later this year, we take a look at their hotly-released album this Summer.
OVERVIEW
Many collude to the fact that Militarie Gun tick by the musical restlessness of their lead vocalist and sparring mastermind, Ian Shelton – “I’ve always been the kind of person who’s very compelled to do things.” Many others pin it down to the hooks that cultivate in their short outbursts. Iconic cadences dance to and fro from the itchy guitar works of Born Against to the punk etiquette of Fugazi, all the while keeping it undeniably their own. Whatever steers the vessel at Militarie Gun headquarters, one thing is for sure: they are a force to be reckoned with in the shoegaze/punk/hardcore scene. Ever since Ain’t No Flowers was sent out in early 2021 with their Rage Against The Machine-inspired artwork of the burning van; they have been very much on a warpath, determined to light ablaze with their infectious angst and impish characteristics.
A sudden urge to drop tools and write it all down when inspiration arrives, Militarie Gun are here for an all-out frontal attack in producing menacingly melodious alternative noise, inspired by those hardcore punks before them.
Their debut opener All Roads Lead To The Gun set the rural landscape for the status of such a band; an album very much divvying between the line of post-hardcore and classic Black Flag punk. Shelton lays into the fact that he’s not getting paid for the punk sh*t in Disposable Plastic Trash, while the shoegaze-y limerick Don’t Pick Up The Phone sidelines the chaotic roadtrip reminding folk that people really are after him.
SONG TO SONG
Life Under The Gun is more contemplative, structured and hard-wired to the works of straight-edged alternative rock than post-hardcore or ratty punk – but has no problem still to blow up in your face on occasion. Do It Faster as an opener is mightily fun and seemingly more spritely if we compare that to the ARLTHG‘s opener of Ain’t No Flowers. Like the album before, no song tries to wane on the mic for longer than necessary with the longest song serving a mere 2 minutes and 48 seconds. This solidifies the bands’ songwriting cravings to throw in those catchy melodies with that caustic sound that make it all the more addictive to listen to; without rarely moving your cursor to the skip button. Very High is another guitar-driven anthem that can’t go much wrong while Will Logic – a song with a darker path – draws into their influences of fellow friends and loose cannons Angel Du$t. We have the contemplative slow talk of My Friends Are Having A Hard Time; a quelled statement to the state of our mental health and a new beginning for bold and beefy Militarie Gun, while catchy Never Fucked Up Once brings feelings of mutual abandonment – “What you say in a day and it’s televised / When you’re caught in your way with no alibi / When you wish you could stay but you’ve been vilified./ When your bloodthirsty mob, it expects a life” – the stuttering snare and lanky guitar chains venting Shelton’s gravelly frustrations even more so, before we’re swept into a revisited version of Big Disappointment from II of their debut. See You Round is something oddly inviting. A guest of post-punks Murder Capital, it’s pulsating tone resembling that of that Paul in his Strawberry Fields. It’s squeezed in here as a spray-and-pray for Gun Club but we’re soon jostled back into the pit with finalised point, Life Under The Gun, as we chase what can never be caught- A life of pursuit ends up pursuing you…
A supporting slot for Scowls’ tour ultimately laid the foundations to rejig and fit the right shapes into their live spaces to go on the road themselves, fronting their own shows. They are currently hosting a tour a wee bit closer to home around North America but they are set to go on a large European escapade into the new year, ending a long string of dates in Belfast on the 11th December. I would recommend to catch them in your local city dive if you get a chance – it’ll sure be a sweaty one.
FFO: Fiddlehead; Scowl; Angel Du$t
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