Rebuilder are a quintet from Boston (Massachusetts, USA not Lincolnshire, UK) and I recently stumbled upon them on Instagram, of all places! A self-proclaimed gnarly punk band, Rebuilder have one full length album, released in 2015, under their belts but it was their latest EP, released last month, that caught my attention. Just take a look at the wonderful artwork for Sounds From The Massachusetts Turnpike, underneath this paragraph, and you’ll see what I mean. Thankfully when I took to Bandcamp to have a listen, I found that the music was top notch too.
The first song on Sounds From The Massachusetts Turnpike is called Mile Or An Inch and it kicks off with a decent amount of distortion and fuzzy yet melodic guitar. We also get a first hint of the underlying keys that it turns out are a pretty vital part of the Rebuilder sound. At first glance, or I suppose upon first listen, Rebuilder are a straight up melodic, perhaps a little bit poppy, American punk rock band but the addition of keyboards and/or organ gives their sound a slightly different edge – and it’s one that I like a lot. This is a singalong punk rock anthem at its best about trying to better yourself and not giving up. ‘Don't go down without a fight, 'Cause it doesn't matter if you're missing by a mile or an inch kid, But at least you know you tried.’ Next up, flowing on nicely from the distorted ending of Mile Or An Inch, we have Anchoring. After a relatively mid tempo drum intro and opening verse, the song is transformed into an upbeat and in-your-face track. It somehow manages to feel a lot shorter than its three minutes in length, perhaps this is due to the succinct and direct lyrics. After the first verse and first chorus you’d sort of expect there to be another verse similar to the first but that’s not what we get here. Instead the chorus is extended and what I suppose you would call a bridge is repeated a couple of times – ‘Are we still anchoring? If I could I would erase this.’ – before we run through it all again. I’m loving how full of surprises this EP is turning out to be and this is only track two.
The keyboard is perhaps a little bit more prevalent at the start of third track, Get Up, and gives Rebuilder a more pop punk sound. At least until the palm-muted guitars and exchanging vocal lines of the first chorus kick in. This is probably the catchiest song of Sounds From The Massachusetts Turnpike so far with its simple singalong-able chorus of ‘Get up get up get up, No ones falling here, Get up get up get up, No ones falling here, Is what you told me.’ I wasn’t really sure what existing punk bands I’d compare Rebuilder to – they certainly don’t sound exactly like anyone that I can think of – but the vocals in the breakdown of Get Up kind of bring to mind Pup. That’s just the vocals mind you. Marking the middle of the EP, this song features a melancholic and ever so slightly eerie piano outro. The World Is An Asshole begins with a sweet head-nod-along-able guitar groove that instantly has me hooked and starting to think that this might be the best song so far. The guitars got me hooked at first but its the lyrics that had me well and truly invested. It is comforting and gratifying to hear someone sing about not always wanting other people around – ‘I'm not the type who wants people around, But I'd really like it if you stayed’. After a pretty hefty guitar solo, things seem to go a little bit acoustic, or at least toned down, for a heartfelt bridge ‘The last time I got out of bed, I should have slept in all day instead, I'm not safe out here’ This is a song that I imagine would be pretty life-affirming to sing along to at a Rebuilder live show.
The World Is An Asshole ends with an extended slower paced outro but the tempo picks up again as soon as fifth track, Nasty Habit, kicks off. We are pushed full pelt back into the melodic punk rock that I know many, if not all, CPRW readers love. I’ve refrained from mentioning any vocalist names in my review so far as I know that Rebuilder have two main vocalists, Sal and Craig – and I don’t really know which is which! It hasn’t been quite so obvious on previous tracks but Nasty Habit is a track that lets the both of them shine, exchanging vocal lines two or three at a time and then belting out the chorus together. ‘After all this you haven’t, Found the truth, That I’ve got a nasty habit, And I will disappoint you.’ As Nasty Habit is the shortest track on the EP, it’s not long before we find ourselves at the last song. Closing out Sounds From The Massachusetts Turnpike is Vivir & Morir, which means ‘to live and to die’ in Spanish (I Googled it, I don’t speak Spanish). I love it when the last song on an album or EP really sounds like it could only belong at the end as a sort of conclusion to that which came before it – and I feel like this the case here. Vivir & Morir is a song about never being able to get everything quite right no matter how many times you try and how frustrating that can feel – but after all, we’re only human. ‘I'll live and die, A thousand times, Before I ever get it right, I’m coming up short, Leaving so much more, To be desired every time.’ What an excellent end to an excellent EP.
If you’re lucky enough to be going to Fest this year, you can catch Rebuilder there. And if, like me, you are not then at least you can find Sounds From The Massachusetts Turnpike on Spotify and Bandcamp, as well as the rest of their back catalogue. I’ll be keeping an eye on Rebuilder (because I’ve liked them on Facebook – and you should too).
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