A recent influence on Cincinatti-based Choncy is egg punk band Snooper from Nashville, whose goofy-but-serious album Worldwide was one of my favourites from last year. Trademark is Choncy’s third album. Their PR states that the band do “twisty turny punk rock” that only a Midwest group can do justice to. I think young Marxists in Leeds would disagree. Indeed, young Marxists in Leeds are very good at disagreeing. If you mention ‘People’s Front of Judea’ in front of them, hold onto your pint because peaceniks gonna get nasty.
Trademark’s first track ‘Scroller’ is a scratchy, snarky takedown of the insatiable appetite for digital exposure. It begins with yowling feedback, and a few seconds later lead vocalist Liam Shaw mentions “negative feedback” – how about that for aural and lyrical symbiosis? “There’s no hope for the scrolling man!” First single ‘Dressing The Part’ is about how clothes affect one’s socioeconomic outcome. Choncy are certainly dressing the part in the video if that part is agitated geography teachers doing Gang of Four. The lo-fi dual screen and suburban chaos give off a very welcome whiff of Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’.
Like many of the best punk songs ‘Just Like Them’ spends much of its time shifting wildly between two chords, as desperate as a fly trying to escape from an upturned jar. On the excellently titled ‘A Dog’s Best Man’ lines such as “we will do wonderful things” are uttered with the same nonchalant piss-taking tone of Jello Biafra. The video for latest single ‘Bypass’ sees the band running around a wind farm and doing Pete Townsend windmills. There’s probably a ‘biggest fan’ joke to be made here, but let’s stick to the bass-in-your-face music and imagine David Byrne creating moves for it in 1984.
Title track ‘Trademark’ is a 52-second collage of fuzz and chimes, warped harmonica, and seemingly random vocal snippets. It may well be a scorching commentary on the atomisation of 21st-century Western society, or maybe it’s just a bunch of cool sounds. ‘Contact’ thrusts itself into your auditory domain like Heny Rollins pushing an unusually stubborn door. The track is so angular, it’ll nick your lobes. Lyrically, ‘Seatbelt’ is a sea of calm: “Driving down the road with my seatbelt…Look at this space, all free to roam.” Musically, like many of the best punk songs, it’s as calm as a car crash. Similarly, ‘Version of a Version’ demands introspection and limb flailing. Try reading Camus in the mosh pit and you’ll have a version of a ‘Version of a Version’. Final track ‘Finance’ is so sneeringly titled, you could be forgiven for getting pleasantly wound up by just reading the title over and over again. However, listening to the actual track is recommended. Needless to say, it hurtles along at an illegal pace.
If twisty turny punk rock and demented dissonance are your respective preferences, then listen no further – Choncy are here to bend your bones and satiate your synapses. Get yourself to one of their gigs if you can (Marxist and existentialist texts are optional). Whether you can or can’t, get Trademark. Acceleration and satire are your friends.
Trademark is out now via Feel It Records
Review by Neil Laurenson
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook | Bluesky | Instagram | Threads | Mailing List