Boy, it’s nice to hear punk kids with an ear for melody and phrasing. Why so often do bands feel they gotta throw the baby out with the bathwater to grit their teeth and bang their heads? Strip away the punk accoutrements of Solid Attitude’s new 7” on Rotted Tooth and what you have is lean, good-ole-fashioned pop songwriting.

“Dash-Ex” is without a dominant function chord (the tent pole of harmonic organization), but its riff melodies outline interesting modal colors around B major. The band uses rhythmic motives to drive the song forward: the jerky yelp phrases of the vocal, the continuous eighth notes of the bass, and the tom rattles of the drums (kudos to the drummer here, keeping energy without snare blasts that upstage everyone else). Every element is a concise, hooky burst. The chorus uses the same progression as the iconic verse of “And Your Bird Can Sing”, and once the thin, drowning bagpipe keys cut in with a “na-na-na” pop group line, you know Solid Attitude are consciously adopting and manipulating these tropes.

The fact that Solid Attitude can conceive of and construct songs to be immediately attractive and then present them with screaming and bashing makes their music much more aggressive and effective. There may be pop elements, but at no point do they neuter the darker edge and drive of the music. Instead of empty noise, it’s noise driven by clear artistic and rhetorical choices to have greater emotional impact. Solid Attitude show you don’t have to sacrifice melody to be a barking punk band. “All acts must demonstrate the intention of whoever executes them” – Leonardo Da Vinci, punk scholar.