cover art by Rachel Adler
by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
King Pizza Records have been a bright spot on the beer-soaked, shred first, ask questions later brand of DIY punk within the Brooklyn DIY scene for years. Their bands are known to throw down with a great joyous energy, reckless but in a good natured, always ready to party, kind of way. With that, it makes perfect sense that so many of the label’s bands have captured great sets on BreakThru Radio’s “BTR Live Studio” show. King Pizza have compiled the best of those sessions for Best of BTR Vol. 1, a benefit designed to help their artists during these difficult financial times due to the pandemic. With 18 tracks, the compilation focuses on nine of King Pizza’s bands including The Royal They, The Mad Doctors, Lumps, Powersnap, and beyond.
Each band offers their own take on sweaty garage punk, rock ‘n’ roll, and blistering fuzz, to the point you can nearly smell the performances coming through the speakers. There’s the frantic garage wriggling of Lumps’ “Use Your Words,” the feedback laden punk of Daddies and Glass Slipper, and of course the ever impeccable surge of sludge pop courtesy of The Royal They’s bombastic “Sludgefucker” and slow burner “Flying Naked”. Both Top Nachos and The Rizzos (who recently shared a split) bring a pop(ier) side to their punk, with big melodies that stick past the raucous outpour of distortion that comes along with it. With Shelter Dogs carrying the torch for live wire indie rock, Powersnap take a disjointed approach to stoner punk with detached post-punk grooves and enigmatic howls. It’s all tied together by The Mad Doctors, a band that may be gone, but never forgotten. The linchpin on the King Pizza universe, they offer both “Nerd Alert” and “Not Absolutely” and their surfy yet scuzzy punk remains in fine form.