TTW + BS present The Bombpops and Decent Criminal

The Bombpops

“We put a lot of thought into being able to tell stories with these songs,” says Jen Razavi who, along with Poli van Dam, founded The Bombpops in 2007. Together, Razavi and van Dam became the band’s backbone, writing songs that highlighted their dual guitar attack and were carried by their pitch-perfect vocal harmonies. It’d take the band a decade to release their first full-length album, but 2017’s Fear of Missing Out was a perfect distillation of everything they’d been working toward. And now, with the Dear Beer EP, they’re proving that there’s plenty more where that came from.

The four new tracks that make up Dear Beer are as distinct as they are powerful. “The song ‘Dear Beer’ was collectively everyone in the band’s favorite song,” says Razavi, and it’s easy to see why. Where Fear of Missing Out saw Razavi and van Dam throwing out pointed lyrical jabs, Dear Beer ups the introspection. Make no mistake, there’s still a bit of bile getting spit up, but there’s just the right amount of levity mixed in. It’s what allows these songs to work as stories, ones that are resonant for the band members, and will surely hit home for anyone who plays Dear Beer all the way through.

“I love a song where the lyrics tell a story, and although I may have never experienced anything like what is happening in that story, the song allows me to put myself in that person’s place,” says Razavi. The Dear Beer EP finds unity in the thematic elements of each song, as each one sees The Bombpops offering up personal anecdotes and crafting songs that have, as Razavi and van Dam intended, a narrative arc. It’s seen in “Dear Beer,” where they swear off drinking alone and vow to stop being “a fucking downer,” a mantra that enables them to cut out the source of the toxicity without a second thought. But even when it gets a little heavy, The Bombpops find ways to make it all feel uplifting.

“‘Dear Beer’ and ‘Turn up the Thermostat’ are particularly dark,” says Razavi, “They’re a bit self-loathing and reflect on negative experiences.” While the lyrics on Dear Beer are culled from difficult experiences, The Bombpops use their buoyant music to push back against the things weighing them down. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that they throw in just the right amount of self-deprecation to keep themselves from ever making it too much of a bummer. “We intentionally put those lyrics to playful, poppy melodies. It weirdly has a therapeutic effect in the long run,” says Razavi. “Making them light and playful makes the thing that seemed so dramatic to us at the time something to laugh about now.”

That balance between the series and the lighthearted is what makes Dear Beer not just the logical evolution of The Bombpops sound, but also the start of a new chapter for the band. It may have taken them a decade to release their first album, but as Dear Beer proves, the wind is at their back, and nothing is going to keep them down.

Decent Criminal
With a sound reminiscent of ‘90s alternative, punk, surf, and power-pop, Northern CA's Decent Criminal offers catchy, upbeat songs that mercilessly collide with abrasive and often melancholy undertones, to bring forth a style that is both playfully compatible, and inadvertently raw. 

In 2014, brothers Hunter and Tristan Martinez took what was already an active touring act, and rebuilt it from the ground up, giving the band a new sound and set of players. Hunter, the band’s only original member, switched from guitar/vocals to drums, and the band never skipped a beat. Tristan, who was at one point the band’s fill in bass player, took on the key roles of guitarist and primary songwriter. The two brothers enlisted the services of bassist/vocalist Alex Kouninos, and later guitarist/vocalist Brian Gellman to round out the sound. The new band quickly developed their own style, with unique three part vocal harmony permeating their recordings, and live performances. 

Since the overhaul, Decent Criminal has released a 7” split in 2015, a self-titled debut LP in 2016, and has most recently released their sophomore LP "Bloom” via Dodgeball Records in 2017. Over the past few years, Decent Criminal has picked up some serious momentum, thanks to a combination of prolific songwriting, and a relentless drive to tour and play live.

Mean Caesar 

A new band featuring current and ex members of Crystal Piss, Fletch Cadillac, Fraun, Great Cynics,  It's Not OK, Maths, The Murderburgers, Myelin, O’ Messy Life, Post Louis, Pure Graft, Spoilers, Visual Offence, Werecats and Writhe.
South London juggernauts Mean Caesar have been tearing their way through the grimiest clubs and loudest bars South of the river since the start of 2018. But practicing for two years before playing their first show has done their sound justice. Their debut EP, self-titled ‘Mean Caesar’, out 5/10/18, deals with London’s darker side and personal loss, attaining nosebleed-reaching dimensions. Asserting an amplified, technically informed, yet polish-free style, the band proves their punk mastery while retaining all of their raw, buzzed-out power.
 
Opening for the likes of Red City Radio, Apologies, I Have None and The Copyrights, vocalist Danny Lester, guitarists Oliver Ward and David Littlefair, bassist Stu Henson and drummer Stu Morrison have spent their time in the practice room studying the controlled power of their mentors. For the self-titled debut, their goal was to make the music “hooky as hell, with an urgency to it,” as frontman Lester says, and they tasked veteran post-hardcore engineer Joe Watson with helping them achieve a muscular bite. In typical fashion of their former bands, the music rejects any hints of pretention.
 
First single ‘South London Summer‘ epitomizes this; an insatiable sharpness of  a track, about finding a gang where you feel at home. “I’m thankful every day that this bunch of misfits happened to cross my way / We’d prop up the Monty bar where talking endless shit can get you far / We’d toast our failures in the park and wonder reckless streets in the dark,” Lester croons on the rampageous track.
 
Since they broke out at the start of 2018, Mean Caesar have been making bold impressions with their wall of noise sound. South London’s best kept secret.
“...full of gruff emotion and an authentic street punk tone it matches with lyrical themes of belonging beautifully...”- Album of the Week- Vulture Hound
“...packed with more hooks than a fisherman’s tackle box and more drive than an episode of Top Gear...”- Shout Louder
“...Mean Caesar is definitely a contender for EP of the year...”- Colin’s Punk Rock World

The New Heat
The New Heat. Punk rock/indie band based in London, UK. Soon to be your favourite weirdos. 

Our debut EP, "We Said Our Prayers", is out now on all digital platforms.

The Handsome Scoundrels
Pop punk from Alabama, USA