Oldfriends, a four-piece from Whittier, California, have released a four-song EP entitled It’s Not Working Out. The band has been called a pop-punk band and though I would agree with that they also seem to fall into the skate-punk category as well. This 7-inch has four catchy melodic punk tunes that '90s era Epi-Fat fans will enjoy.

The first song on this 7-inch is called “Surface” and for anyone who watched Nickelodeon in the '90s (like me) you will be very familiar with this song’s intro. I actually got hit with a bit of nostalgia when I first heard it. I won’t give away what it is because it’s a bit of a surprise, but trust me it’s a pretty cool way to start out a song. However, after this intro you immediately get hit with a heavily distorted guitar mixed with some short bass fills, which leads into the chorus where the vocalists begin to harmonize with each other. With this song you also get great guitar chord progressions as well as heavy scratching. There is also a very good instrumental interlude that is led by swiftly played guitar octaves and really fast bass fills in between the guitar chords a little later on.

The best song of the four on this 7-inch is called “373 Crystal Lake Rd. (Big Bear Song).” This track starts off with a slow walking bass line while the guitarist lets out these high-treble chords ring out over it. Eventually, the tension from this slow intro breaks and rhythm speeds up considerably. The lead vocalist begins to sing the very catchy melody, while the back up vocalists quickly add “woahs” in between his lines. It’s a very tight exchange between all of the singers and Oldfriends pull it off well. And how could such an energetic song have lyrics about anything else other than drinking?: “I can’t tell if I’m wasted/Or what I took to get like this/ I’m having trouble breathing, you’re having trouble seeing.”

Overall, Oldfriends have released a pretty fun EP. For those of you who are more partial to melodic punk rock rather than the hardcore stuff, you should give this a listen.

You can check this EP out here.