free download: don’t be fooled by the name. runahwae’s latest ep is more than ‘just some songs’ #soundcheck

There are a lot of reasons I consider Indy’s scene to be my 2nd home after Brooklyn (I also consider Boston to be my 0th home, but sometimes it’s Cape Cod if it’s convenient to the conversation. I have a complicated relationship with the concept of “home…”). Chief among them is the fact that it’s consistently proven itself to be a breeding ground for some really interesting and really dope music. Far too many indie bands pursue uniqueness as an end unto itself, deliberately crafting something that no-one else has done simply because being a niche of one is as marketable as shoehorning oneself into a “sound” but with slightly more glory. But there’s an unpretentious and un-self-conscious uniqueness to many of the bands that come out of the Indy scene, born of that punkest of all qualities: letting the weirdos be weird and encouraging them to tell their stories and speak their truths. It’s a scene that understands intrinsically that a kid playing electronica in a luchador mask can be as punk as The Casualties, if not moreso. It’s the scene that gave us Runahwae’s crusty strange siblings in Crack Lung (with whom they share a member). It’s from that scene that the kids in Runahwae aka Children of the Cul-du-sac aka Runaway bring their latest EP, Just Some Songs.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor

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“Introverted” plays like a socially awkward re-imagining of Suicidal Tendancies’ classic “Institutionalized.” It’s honest and uncomfortable while remaining undeniably fun and strange. Part of what makes Runahwae great is that even when they practice the art of self-mythologizing on “Ordinary,” they undercut themselves with a shrug and a maybe. There’s a defiant yet self-effacing charm that makes their rambling post-indie 94th wave crypto-emo hip-hop utterly infectious. “Tattoos on my face / I have tattoos on my face / they say I’ll never find a job cause I have tattoos on my face / like I want to wear a suit and tie / I’ll hang a noose and die / before I sit in a cubicle / then you’ll see me in a suit and tie / laying in an open casket in my funeral” from “Bittersweet” is the kind of line and delivery that posits Runahwae as the true heirs to Happy Go Licky’s paper crown, not Fugazi. Somewhere, Guy Picciotto is very jealous.
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Runahwae’s EP is free on Bandcamp. Take it from them: “downloading one of these EPs is what you oughta do.”

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https://www.facebook.com/Runahwae-608499579263409/