new music: the atomic tanlines “classic hardcore” #soundcheck

2013 turned out to be a great year for raw and radical queer and feminist punk rock. It’d be criminal to close out the year without mentioning The Atomic Tanlines out of Denton, TX. Their simply titled Demo EP has been out for a few months now, and is seriously ferocious.
Lead singer Ally Play-Nice fails to live up to her name in the most spectacular way possible. After opening with the Black Flag inflected “Skank Around,” the band launches into the infectious “Bdsm vs. Tupac.” The Atomic Tanlines do a good job of balancing their palpable rage and the fact that when you get down to it, rebellion is fun.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor

From the early hardcore sounding riffs to the audible tape hiss, there’s something decidedly classic about this EP, but the subject matter is right now. The appropriately capitalized “FUCK MY REPRODUCTIVE DUTY” is especially timely in light of the reproductive health battles being fought (still) in Texas right now. While “Comatose” is a criticism of hard drugs in the punk scene. The fact that the issues Ally Play-Nice sings about wouldn’t have been out of place on a classic hardcore record from ’81 says less about the vintage sensibilities of The Atomic Tanlines and more about how fucked is the glacial pace of our society’s supposed progress.

The EP is available as a free download through the Bandcamp player above.