Here are 34 reasons why Hoax Hunters new EP Clickbait will become your new musical obsession.
Here are 34 reasons why Hoax Hunters new EP Clickbait will become your new musical obsession.
1. Dat cover tho. Seriously, the cover done by drummer Greg Garner is a perfect representation of melodic punk rock. Remove the “Hoax Hunters” wording from the side of the car and it could easily pass as the cover to a Best Of Hüsker Dü release. Just a great visual effect as you whip through the seven song EP.
2. The runtime of 17 minutes makes it whip past with an urgency only punk music can provide. Hell, by the time you’re done reading this review, you could already be three or four songs deep into the new EP. It’s an appropriate runtime for a release labeled Clickbait, but it still feels substantial since it’s hardly a seven track wall of noise coming at you.
3. The “Clickbait” campaign stickers you can buy in addition to the EP. Serious talk, Richmond – we dropped the ball not handing some of these to The Donald when he so graciously appeared in our humble town. Internet fame to the person who gets the next presidential candidate visiting RVA to pose with one of these bad boys. Also, these are the only campaign bumper stickers socially acceptable next year. Yes, that includes your witty Honey Badger 2016 sticker. Just stop. We get it.
5. The way opening track “Poisonous Love” unknowingly speaks to the appeal of clickbait articles and posts in general. It’s not hard to see why people fall in love with seeing their favorite thing listed out with funny GIFs as illustration, but it’s basically just an adult version of a pop-up book that really poisons our mind and robs of any intellectual growth. On that note, let’s continue this list!
5. That hook on “Poisonous Love” – “Poison-ssss looooooooOOOOOOvvveeee / take a bite it won’t hurt you.” It’s been stuck in my head since the first time I heard it and hopefully I’ve passed it off onto you now.
6. That excellent stop-start guitar breakdown of “American Mission.” The song itself is only 1:27, but I could just listen to vocalist PJ Sykes snarling over that guitar riff for at least five more minutes with his explosive political commentary here.
7. The clever wordplay near the end of “American Mission.” Hoax Hunters trade “state mint” for “statement” before declaring “misprint.” It’s a nice little desert of ambiguity and wit to go with your main course of searing hot attitude.
8. The way “Pictures Of Rhythm” fits on the EP. It’s the only song not written by PJ Sykes, but it lines up perfectly with the sonic package the EP offers.
9. Who else just loves the way the drums really “pop” on “Pictures Of Rhythm?” If there was one song on the EP to air drum to at your desk or in your car, this is the one.
10. The way “Transparency” provides a perfect middle to the EP. It allows the stinging guitar riffs a chance to breathe on their own instead of being jammed right on top of each other and hey – it’s also a pretty cool song in its own right. The simple and laid back nature of the song really lets the restless and lonely feeling of the song comes through. The way Sykes slowly draws up his guitar in the melody of the song really nails this idea of a sleepless night making it a highlight of the EP.
11. The fact that they have a song titled “Transparency” that comes right before a song called “Clickbait” on an EP also named that. Meta points!
12. On the surface, the title track and EP name are gimmicky, but this is truly punk rock – just look for the social commentary! “Fake news / eye catching / short fuse.” That pretty much sums the feelings every Buzzfeed reader goes through when they open up a new list “article.” I don’t think this is the type of social commentary the original punk pioneers imagined back in the 70s, but hey – what works works, people, and this certainly does.
13. The title track’s way of mindlessly singing the drone lyrics of “read on, read on,” which is in no way a commentary of this upstanding review itself. Let’s keep going, shall we?
14. The sprawling nature of “Breakthrough.” At over five minutes, it’s by far the longest track on the EP and the way it technically closes the EP is great since we’ve just been giving a whirlwind of punk rock so it’s nice to sit down and simmer on all we’ve heard. Particularly cool about this song is the repeated line of “This is really happening” before finally dropping the line “Breakthrough / It’s all you have to get through.” Just a nice piece of heightened tension in an already uneasy five minute song.
15. The credits. The seventh and final track on the EP, appropriately named “What Everybody Ought To Know About Clickbait,” is an audio credit listing read over the background of a really fun driving song. At first, it’s disappointing they wasted such a head-bobbing groove on just the credits, but really, it’s an insanely clever and novel idea that really shows the ingenuity of Hoax Hunters. Just one of many reasons Hoax Hunters are held in such high regard here in Richmond.
16. The fact that whenever you hear a band do an audio credit listing in the future at the end of their album or EP, you’ll know which loveable RVA punk band did it first.
17. When you’re done, you know you’re just going to put it on again because it is that damn good. The intensity and aggression is perfectly spaced out on the record and interlaced with some introspective concepts that fans of melodic punk will just fall in love with. At 17 minutes, Hoax Hunters have provided a better take on punk music in 2015 than most bands could if they had two whole hours. It’s a send-up to the style that made Bob Mould a legend, but it’s also completely fresh in the same way. Obviously the credits and the album’s “concept” are creative, but just the way these basic songs are structured and sequenced really makes it an ear-catching EP that’s a clear step above in today’s punk world.
18. Because they named their EP Clickbait allowing everyone in RVA a chance to show off their “excellent” joke and pun skills.
19. Okay – we didn’t make it to 34, but really, who clicks on a list with a random number and thinks, “That’s the exact number of reasons I was looking for to prove why I love Ron Swanson!” Plus, now you have more time to listen to the EP. Go! Run! Listen!
How did we stack up? What did we miss? Aren’t you tired of webpages ending in things like this? Let us know below in the comments!
And for real, check out Hoax Hunters’ new EP Clickbait – it’s a great reminder that punk music still has plenty of novel and interesting ideas, both musically and lyrically, to offer the world in 2015. It takes a special band to be able to provide such a succinct reminder and Hoax Hunters proves again why they’re just right for the job.
Clickbait is out now on Cherub Records. You can preview the album and order it over at cherubrecords.bandcamp.com. Get it today!
