After spending two years honing their craft in the dusty concrete of City of Angels, childhood friends Marvin, Porky and Manny finally met their vocal match with the edition of Nick Vicario. Featuring members of SMUT, Public Eye, and SMIRK, the vivacious quartet has cavernous post-punk down to a science. Forgoing the sappier in favor of the solid, Cemento utilizes all the distortion and chorus they can without wandering into the muck.
The drums stay crisp and clobbering while retaining their snappy hi-hat sizzles because this is that type of dark shit you can both dance and mosh to. All the while, barely intelligible lo-fi vocals waver in between lamenting crooning, and shouted imperatives. Even without the lyrics sheet, we can tell the message is emotional as their bio notes “Cemento is the embodiment of the rose that you find growing in the crack of concrete on the Los Angeles riverbed.” It’s been a hard year and some change for all of us and there’s a lot to express about it, but there’s also a lot to appreciate and this cassette perfectly captures that blend of feeling so listen below and order here from Iron Lung Records.
