Freshkills - Creeps and Lovers

Freshkills
Creeps and Lovers
Arclight Records
Grade: A-

By nailing Dischord-area late 80s post-punk to the wall, NYC’s Freshkills is a sweet change of pace both for Austin’s Arclight Records and the NYC-area in general. Composed of a group of long-playing underground NYC rockers, Zach Lipez (vocals), Bill Miller (bass), Tim Murray (guitar), Jim Paradise (drums), Johnny Rauberts (vocals/guitar), Freshkills unleashes a firestorm of awesomeness on the nine-song Creeps and Lovers. When the record opens on the title-track and Lipez’s intense gruff vocals meet up with the speed downward picking of Murray and Rauberts, the thumping bass of Miller and the straight-ahead drums of Paradise, you doubt that the band can keep up the level and energy on followers; just like all these new bands with one or two great songs, only to fall into generic crap. Yet, Freshkills are different from the swath and do deliver on following tracks including highlights from “Future in Publishing” with its great breakdown, “Taste of Metal,” “Is There Enough Cocaine in the World to Make You Care About Me?,” and “If Things Don’t Change.” If you thoroughly enjoy post-punk, and the Dischord/Lovitt sounds, then Freshkills is a band to get excited about.