Berlin seems like the perfect setting for this kind of massive blown out punk. A progressive city with plenty of weird underground stuff going on and you don't need a lot of money to live day to day. It's what I imagine London was like people taking over those huge brownstones and warehouse rehearsal spaces in the late '70s. It's the perfect breeding ground for punk rock. I don't know if it's still like that today but Modern Pets sure make it sound good.
A-Side's "B.I.Y.S." opens with thundery drums and an electric scratch down the fretboard exploding out of a squat alley into multiple layered guitar solo's and a hyper swerving melody. They get right to the chorus screaming "You Scum! / Party!" in that cleanly produced party punk detail. Layered and cranked to the edges of this compression they go as hard as possible getting into heavy foundation riffs for higher end solo distortion to work treble magic just under the surface. They insult you while forcing you to party. Either that or it's in the enduring English way of calling each other 'Cunts' constantly and not breaking into a fight. This thing is dense with speed packing every second with winding riffs and a doubled up chorus of vocals from everyone. I'm sort of getting an Andrew WK feel from this minus any dance/electronic sound at all but maybe that's because of his obsession with partying. They're not obsessed it's just punk house Berlin.
B-Side's "Sweet Frustration" at least gives you a moment with frantic jangly chords before the scrape of heavy distortion feeling more post punk and deliberate. The out of control drunk left and the guitar stuff is sharper sawing away at the melody like the rapid bursts of vocal. They lay this all at the feet of the electric, it's the center of their world. The drums and bass are that background rhythm that's always fast, it's been there for years no matter what the situation, you get to take them for granted, but these guitars are finally going to put a melody to that manic energy. Their sweet frustration is over until the next single.
Get this from Secret Mission Records.
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