Destroy Boys, Honey, I’m Home
Uncool Records

California bands do something magical when it comes to punk rock: there’s a relentless fun about them churning amongst the thrashing guitars and an effortless cool in their delivery. Maybe there’s something in the water, maybe it’s the climate out there. In any case, we love it, and Destroy Boys epitomise the best of it on Honey, I’m Home.

California and Aussie punk has always been tinged with the same sunny energy, and the chords that open Honey, I’m Home are saturated with that glowing fuzz – you know you’re in for a banger right from the off. And of course, the energy only grows as Alexia Roditis’s vocals kick in, sardonically delivering equal parts anger, threatening to put a brick through your window, and self-aware lamentations, but driven with the same attitude throughout. The track’s got the hardcore energy of fellow cali-punk-rockers SWMRS or FIDLAR, but with every bit of commanding magnetism of cited influences Sleater-Kinney and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Honey, I’m Home, is gloriously cathartic, and has us craving a sweaty, messy, basement show more than ever before. Melody lines pass between Roditis’s voice and the instrumental section, and every bit of you will be aching to sing along at the top of your lungs with a roomful of other people, but alas… not for now. You can definitely still sing it at the top of your lungs though, and after a couple of listens? You’ll be hard pressed not to.

Honey, I’m Home is out now.