Lamplighters are a band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who first played a show together back in 2013. Since then they've been lucky enough to play shows with touring acts such as The Menzingers, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Tsunami Bomb, Pears and The Copyrights. The band have released three EPs – Lamplighters in 2016, Years Gone by in 2018 and now Sips in July of 2019. Sips is a four track EP of energetic punk rock featuring raspy and gruff vocals. Completely my can of coke!
The first track on Sips is named One More Time. It starts out with a nice bass line and then some drums before we get a cry of "let's go!" and the guitars join the action. When the vocals come in, they're a bit harsh and raspy sounding – I love them. We're only a few lines in before Lamplighters add some backing harmonies – they seem to really know what I want in my punk music. The song is about growing older, dealing with adult life and wishing to have one more go at being a young person. I loved how Lamplighters made use of all three of their vocalists on the track and I'm hoping that's a theme throughout the EP. The second track is the title track, Sips. This song continues the theme of missing the old days and wanting to return to them. It's played at a fast pace that gives it a sense of urgency and plenty of energy. This makes it fly by, perhaps a bit too quickly for my liking. I want more! The harmonies are again just wonderful, giving you the sense of being involved in the song. I can imagine there's plenty of people listening who will relate with the track's message as well.
Goodbye For Now has an interesting stop start vocal delivery in its introduction. I liked the variety after the breathless start of the opening two songs on the EP. The whole song actually feels as if Lamplighters have focussed on the song being more of a mid-tempo, melodic track rather than another fast one. Happily the harmonies remain, kind of reminding me a little bit of Bad Religion's "oozin-ahs" with how they back up the lead singer. Straying away from the previous topic of missing the past, Goodbye For Now is about exactly what you might expect from the track's title – saying goodbye to someone and looking forward to the next time you see them. The final track is named Shuuu Tiger. Lamplighters really pick the pace back up on this one. Opening with some chugging guitars and a blisteringly delivered opening verse, you quickly get pumped up at the start of the song. After a short but catchy chorus we're greeted with this insane guitar solo, that really came out of nowhere, before we reach my favourite part of the song. The second verse, delivered quickly and packed with some punchy lines really captivated me. I'm going to make it my mission to learn the words to that section before the end of the summer – it's really quite special. What a superb way to finish the EP.
Sips is a fantastic EP by Lamplighters. There's something here for fans of gruff punk bands such as Red City Radio and for street punk fans like Street Dogs. I love the raspy vocals and the rawer sounding production. It gives the EP a bit more life rather than being over produced and sounding too clean.
Stream and download Sips here: https://lamplightersphilly.bandcamp.com/album/sips
Like Lamplighters here: http://facebook.com/lamplighterspa
This review was written by Colin Clark.
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