Having a MySpace profile as your band’s main internet presence in 2012 seems about as career-suicidal as not having a MySpace profile was in 2005. But when you’re talking about Tyvek, a jagged, lo-fi punk band that’s seen several membership changes and a fairly hard-to-trace release schedule over their 6+ years, it sort of makes sense. In context, it all seems to follow a similar line of thought to their songs, which cast off formalities in favor of doing it hard, doing it fast, and making it count. I fell for Tyvek in ‘09 or ‘10, when Kevin of What’s Yr Rupture? Records was nice enough to make up for a tardy mail order package by tossing in a couple extra releases. One of these was the 2007 double 7” installment, Summer Burns. I was hooked: nervous, strangled, angry nerd-punk that was bursting at the seams with kinetic energy. I must have listened to “Frustration Rock”, about 20 times the day I got the 2×7” in the mail. That song and the other three Summer Burns tracks see vinyl re-release on the band’s most recent offering: last year’s LP version of the Fast Metabolism collection on M’Lady’s Records. Fast Metabolism shares its name with a 2007 promo CD-R, and also gathers songs off the self-released disc Finding Out About, from whence it borrows its cover art. Earlier versions of “Future Junk” and “This One or That One,” later re-recorded for 2010’s Nothing Fits LP on In the Red, also make an appearance. Confused yet? Here’s all you need to know: this is Tyvek at their most raw (which is saying something if you’ve heard Nothing Fits, or even 2009’s self-titled LP on Siltbreeze). The songs play off garage rock and fuzzy punk tropes, creating bite-sized pastiche pop tunes, only one of which even hits the 3-minute mark. Meanwhile, frontman Kevin Boyer’s lyrics retain a certain knowing simplicity without sacrificing energy to any hesitant self-awareness. I could armchair philosophize Fast Metabolism as smart-people-making-dumb-music-for-smart-people, but why waste any more time here? Go snag a copy of this catchy collection of exposed nerve endings and listen up! – Ben P