feature: downtown boys’ ‘full communism’ is the most vital punk rock record in recent memory #soundcheck

It’s a testament to how much badass music came out in 2015 that we’re not even getting to what is arguably the most vital punk rock record of 2015 until now. Enter Providence, Rhode Island’s Downtown Boys, a bilingual multi-racial saxophone-laden Marxist-feminist punk rock explosion. For a band that declares their intent of nothing short of Full Communism, this album is as ambitious as punk gets.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor

Lead singer Victoria Ruiz screams “She’s brown! She’s smart!” in alternating English and Spanish on the massive “Monstro,” using punk’s ability to say huge volumes with few words and fewer notes to great effect. She takes entitled punks who block the stage to task on “Tall Boys.” She calls for a 100% inheritance tax on “100% Inheritance Tax.” She has a voice that seems capable of smashing capitalism, hetero-patriarchy, and white supremacy itself. The band takes cues from the great Nation of Ulysses, welding chunks of noise to their stripped down primal punk rock. It’s anarchic, powerful, and that rarest of things in punk rock this intelligent: fun. Over the course of 12 tracks in 23 minutes, The Downtown Boys cement themselves as punk rock’s most vital band in 2015, 2016, and any damn year.

Full album available HERE

Photo by Josh Sisk