Here’s a question for you, what do singers do when their band is between albums? Well if you are the singer of punkabilly trio the Graveyard Johnnys and go by the name of Joe Grogan then you’ll be found writing shit hot pop-punk anthems with your other band the Bottlekids.

Having existed for a little over 3 years now this the band’s debut four-track EP which is available now on vinyl and download via the Bandcamp link below and it’s one white-hot collectible if you know anything about Joe’s other band and how fast their records sell and with this 12” single limited to only 300 copies it’s bound to sell out in double-quick time.

Kicking off the EP with the anthemic ’25 Days’ a song the band also previewed as their debut video back in May, the immediate thing that hits me is that aside from Joe’s unmistakable vocals this band are nothing like his other band. Okay maybe there’s a little bit of the rockier side of The Living End that connects both bands, but apart from that this is more like the kind of music that had bands like Green Day topping the charts worldwide just a decade or so ago.

Oddly enough it’s actually one of Billie Joe Armstrong’s side projects, the awesome Foxboro Hot Tubs that Bottlekids remind me of most, especially on the amazing ‘Dark Times’ which kickstarts side 2 of this EP with some of the best powerpop you’ll hear anywhere in 2019. Part Joe Jackson part Head Automatica with even a hint of The Wildhearts in the instrumentation ‘Dark Times’ literally explodes in your head and stays there for days after.

With ‘Smokes Lets Go’ and ‘The Wayside’ completing the four tracks on offer here there’s certainly no room for any excess musical baggage and this is in part thanks to the expert production from Romesh Dodangoda something that leaves me with that immediate sense of “wanting more” once each side of the EP finishes.

So, let’s have some more of the same please Bottlekids via a full-length album packed with songs as fantastic as the four on this tip top slice of punk rock. In the meantime the though the Bottlekids EP is available via the Bandcamp link below…be lucky now!

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Author: Johnny Hayward