by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Ever since the release of Max Baker, Tijuana Panthers’ 2010 debut album, the Long Beach trio have created punk that has evolved (and occasionally devolved) the boundaries of surf rock, garage pop, and post-punk. From early singles like “Crewcut” and “Creature” which captured the spirit of snotty surf punk at its finest to the more experimental but just as essential Carpet Denim LP, the band write songs with pop conviction. Their music is easily digestible but never generic, engaging but never placating. They’ve been at it long enough to earn veteran status, and Halfway To Eighty, the band’s sixth full length record makes good on all that mileage. Due out June 24th via the band’s long-term home at Innovative Leisure (Mapache, Alex Maas, Hanni El Khatib), the band describe as the album as a dedication to a lifetime of making music.
Following the garage-pop glow of “Helping Hand,” the band are sharing the record’s second single, “False Equivalent,” a song that digs into the dusty end of punk’s twang, recalling The Fall of The Gun Club if they spent more time out in the sun. The rhythms feel wound in elastic, as both drums and guitars feel like they are being pulled to the point of snapping. It draws tension to a song that otherwise lets loose, with riffs that shred in juxtaposition and a great splattered kind of post-punk exuberance.
Speaking about the single, the band shared:
“Having tough discussions and debates with people close to you can feel more like a game that’s meant to be won rather than a compassionate effort to understand. We are barely evolved. I just took your Queen in chess, you say I didn’t, and we are in fact playing checkers. False equivalents show we’re not even having the same conversation.”