The Humanoids
Are Born (2007)
Brian Shultz
Where the fuck did this band come from? Oh, St. Louis.
Well, in any event, they're your new favorite pop-punk band. Seriously. Failing to conform to any suffixed band affiliation, the Humanoids instead draw from a bevy of (somewhat) disparate punk influences; if Descendents, 7 Seconds, Screeching Weasel and Dillinger Four have no entries in any of these guys' compact disc collections, I'm severely lost.
This self-titled EP is self-released and comes from a band that's apparently been around for less than a year, but it already outclasses practically every group of veteran pop-punks the Humanoids are likely to play with. The band ambles along at a rambunctious tempo and sometimes hardcore-anchored vocal ("For Better or Worse"), but always mix it up when it seems feared a song would grow stale at a moment's notice. One listen to a song like "Minor Wound" and I'm fucking floored that a band with so little experience can write such a catchy, compelling and complex tune. Rhyming couplets as simple as "growing up means fucking up / by its own definition. / The only thing that we know / is how not to listen" ("Men of Standard") make it hard to resist shouting along.
The Humanoids deliver 14 minutes of unexpected goodness here. It would be an understatement to say I'm excited to see hear what comes next if this is just their first release.