Cloak/Dagger

Don't Need A [7 inch] (2009)

Brian Shultz

As Grave Mistake did with Kamikazes for the band's first full-length, We Are, we've got a snazzy Cloak/Dagger single in support of their newest LP.

If there were three tight, top-notch examples of the band's garage punk'n'roll on last year's Lost Art, "Don't Need A" was certainly one of them. Consequently, it's one of my five favorite songs off that album and therefore, I can endorse the A-side of this 7" wholeheartedly.

Grave Mistake ensures a worthwhile vinyl purchase for C/D fans, however, with two B-sides. "Jesus Had a Twin" is faster and scrappier, calling up the band's early '80s hardcore influences more directly than usual, and it segues perfectly into "Twenty on One," like the songs were made for each other. The latter ends a little more abrupt than I'd like, but it's got a more original, mid-tempo flow that doesn't necessarily fit in cleanly with any of the modes explored on Lost Art. It's therefore pretty interesting for the band.

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Don't Need A