What do you get when you mix a nice blend of The Ramones, Screeching Weasel, Adolescents and add a Canadian feel to it?

School Damage, apparently.

This Toronto based trio released a 4 song EP last September titled Straight D's in which all four tracks have heavily distorted guitars, pounding bass, gritty vocals and drums hammering away continuously. In other words - Punk Rock.

First off the list is the track "I Wanna Be Wasted". With a name like that you can sure bet it's your standard punk song featuring the aformentioned characteristics plus a jumpy drum intro that gives a vibe similar to "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet. The song has a chant-able chorus and outro featuring the song title as the words to sing along to - a great track to start off the EP.

Next two tracks "Chelsea" and "Surf's Up, Dickhead!" blast in with no time to spare and rightly so since being the shortest songs on the EP, both being under 2 minutes but lacking nothing in terms of speed, energy and raw power straight from something you'd expect from a Bad Brains album. Vocals are dark and hoarse but do the trick along with the uncompromising speed the band emulates.

Last but not least there is the track "Hangin' with Mr. Carradine"; presumably a tribute to the late actor David Carridine who was known most notably for his character Kwai Chang Caine in the 70's TV show Kung Fu and as the titular character from the Kill Bill movies. The longest song off the EP, the chorus contains lyrics such as: 'You just want to be friends, I don't think so, I don't think so' which is pretty much the perfect opposite of the easy listening and happy "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by California Funk band War.

Overall, these guys have a consistent and fast-paced sound, the bass here is of particular note as it sounds similar to Patrick Costello from Dillinger Four and Matt Freeman from Rancid. Production-wise it is a raw sound which is not necessarily a bad thing for the band which has a very distinct Ramonescore sound to them. School Damage continue to push themselves farther into the Ramones-style of punk and there is absolutely no reason for you to not check out this EP now.