Insignificant Others

Insignificant Others [EP] (2019)

John Gentile

Insignificant Others are a lovey-dovey kind of crew. Composed of Johnny Mick from Posers, Erin Fox of Resilient, and Ray Finkle of Aspiga (and also of early Posers), the band’s debut self-titled EP makes it trade in power-pop-punk with a clear indebtedness to bands like the Undertones and Buzzcocks. And like those two legends, Insignificant Others is careful to avoid making it ALL lovey dovey.

“Big Talk” has the sass of the early Clash singles where Johnny when he yells “I won’t be your paperweight!” over a buzzy, melodic pulse, ranting against the (8) to five. Finkle twists the knob, though, on “Picture of You” where he paints the relatable picture of trawling through an Ex’s facebook posts. He makes himself suffer on the track and admits, somehow, making himself suffers gives him some sort of pleasure. It’s an earnest and nuanced emotion hidden behind a deceptively simple refrain “I miss you.”

What carries the release is the certain reverence the band has for the modes of the earliest punk singles- melody, harmony, as juiced up by a feedback caginess. Still, when they break the façade, things become really interesting. “The Not so Great Big World” opens with a riff stolen from Looney Tunes before dropping into the bleak refrain of “The not so great big world don’t care about me/don’t care about you!” all while maintaining a wide grinned, bopping beat.

No doubt, Insignificant Others do face the perils of being “too retro.” They’ve certainly mastered the early pogo-punk sound and play it better than a lot of the first and second wave acts that were actually cutting their teeth circa ’77-’79. Yet, due to tracks like “World” and “Picture,” they side step cliché and have started to grow into something beyond the platform built by Pete Shelley. I’d say that the band has great promise, which they do, but their debut EP has more than enough style and character to stand on its own, to begin with.