by Case Cockrell (@Casebaylor)
It's not every day audiences see a touring band that takes every opportunity to give listeners all of the gory details, severed body parts, and all. For Allentown, PA's Pissed Jeans, nothing is safe. Frontman Matt Korvette attacks every topic with burning passion and always manages to be entirely self-aware. The frontman sounds like a blue-collar mutant when singing, fed up with every harrowing reality of living in the paycheck-to-paycheck world. Being that Pissed Jeans is somewhat of a hobby act due to the members having full-time corporate gigs outside the perils of being a touring band, the topics of the Pennsylvania outfit come from a shrinking middle America. Pissed Jeans has lived through their career by giving listeners a dose of middle-class realism, and on Half Divorced, their first record in almost seven years; they refine a high-octane message into a translatable mantra that's as catchy as it is a wake-up call.
The opening track, "Killing All The Wrong People," gets right back to what Pissed Jeans does best. The thrashing drums, a beastly vocal delivery, and screeching guitar lines resonate with the subway-rail-sounding bass in the most chaotic ways. As stated, they last released an album in 2017 when hanging out with no-wave confrontationist Lydia Lunch. The resulting work, Why Love Now, showed them in their most rampant form, bringing glory and closure to a pre-covid era of Pissed Jeans. On "Helicopter Parent," we see Korvette continuing his trajectory of discussing topics that rage on in the world at large, and his sense of humor while doing it never misses the mark.
"Anti Sapio" and "Helicopter Parent" stay consistent with the scathing nature of Korvette's lyricism, all the dry humor intact. This type of absurdism gives them their unique spin on hardcore punk, sardonicism that goes hand-in-hand with their abrasive, often jarring delivery. On the former track, a circle-pit-induced drumbeat appears, only dragging to annunciate the vocal attack from Korvette further. The later ensuing nails-on-a-chalkboard guitar bode well to slide into the next entry on the record. A stanza on "Helicopter Parent" makes an essential incantation about sheltering our youth, something that's become less and less possible in the current climate. "So you think that you're cool with this enlightened attitude" implies that some people can't keep their hands out of the pot, not letting the professionals in education and healthcare do their jobs. The idiocy of "I've done my own research" comes to mind.
The record's second single, "Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars In Debt," develops a more direct delivery for the band, offering insight into an issue that reins true in 2024. Inflation hit record highs, layoffs are rampant, and people go into crippling debt for a piece of paper to be more competitive in this day and age. The literal nature of Pissed Jeans goes a long way, as someone has to be out for the working man. "Everywhere Is Bad" is an album highlight that lists all the issues with the places everyone seems to be flocking to. "Don't be a colonizer" might look good on a t-shirt or two.
A second-half speed run comes in the form of "Alive With Hate," "Seatbelt Alarm Silencer," "Stolen Catalytic Converter," and "Monsters." The Pissed Jeans players slash their way through these four tracks, allowing scrappy punk rock fans to rejoice in these short but brutal cuts. As the curtain closes after a mere thirty minutes, the closing number, "Moving On," reflects on Pissed Jeans' tenure as a band; they're older now. While the unbridled rage is still apparent, the rumination on society's depraved state is still in their toolbox. It's the start of a new era. It's a Pissed Jeans world.