The Portland punk band Broadway Calls is about to release their next album ‘Comfort/Distraction’ via ‘No Sleep Records’, and two tracks ‘Lucky Lighter’ and ‘Widly Swinging’ were premiered through Absolute Punk and Pure Volume.
‘Lucky Lighter’, a very catching-poppy tune, has the outfit of a punk anthem with bright melodic guitar riffs and the necessary soaring chorus ready to be sing-along to at their next show. The song has actually this slight Green Day-ish overtone, with a more sloppy-raucous delivery than Billie Joe Armstrong’s, and it sounds like the sort of song kids will be blasting from their cars while cruising in a sunny day. The second one, ‘Widly Swinging’ may be less anthemic in its form, but it has energizing guitars and dynamic vocals alternating between a punk and a sprawling-melodic delivery.
Both songs convey a sort of recklessness mixed with a real determination, which fits quite well their story: the members of Broadway Calls found themselves without a label and a recording budget to record a follow-up of their 2009 album 'Good Views, Bad News', but they decided to go on anyway.
‘What followed was one of the most stressful 24 hour periods we've ever experienced as a band’, explained vocalist/guitarist Ty Vaughn, ‘But, as frustrated as we were, we knew we still had to make this record because these were the best songs we've ever written, and we weren't about to let it all go to waste. A few amazing people still believed in us enough to help us make it happen and after two years of writing, and two weeks in the Blasting Room, we made the best Broadway Calls record yet.'
And it seems they didn’t compromise their sound as Vaughn added that ‘Widly Swinging’ is 'a jab at the people that told us to change our ideas and our band to benefit themselves. We didn't think we'd ever have to deal with that old cliche [of changing], but unfortunately, we did. I was inspired in a way they probably didn't intend.’
‘Comfort/Distraction’ was produced by the Descendents’ Bill Stevenson, and will be out on February 5th. Here is the track listing:
1. Bring On The Storm
2. Open Letter
3. Minus One
4. Lucky Lighter
5. Surrounded By Ghosts
6. Zombie World
7. Wildly Swinging
8. I’ll Be There
9. Stealing Sailboats
10. Life Is Rhythm
11. Full Of Hope