The Chicago based five-piece are comprised entirely of BIPOC members dedicated to ensuring the genre is representative of the real world and to continue the move away from the white dominated stereotype of pop punk. Although they’ve existed as a band since 2014 and been doing relatively well bubbling under the surface of the scene, Action/Adventure (or A/A for short) have only recently exploded into the wider public sphere of consciousness thanks to popular social media app TikTok (other apps are available). The band put together a 60 second song and accompanying video which detailed some of the racism and discrimination each of the members had faced at shows as part of the pop punk scene. Guitarist and vocalist Brompton Jackson posted the video along with the hashtag #PopPunkInColor which then unexpectedly went viral, garnering an epic 60k plays in one day. Fast forward three weeks later and they’re in talks with Pure Noise Records – a wonderful rise-to-fame story for the modern ages.
Their fourth EP – Pulling Focus – and their first on a major label, is out now. Ironically, it was written at a time when the guys were struggling with the ups and downs of being in a band and thought it might be their last EP before ‘slowing down considerably.’ Now, the future could look a whole lot different, with slowing down not on the agenda.
Heartbreak, betrayal, and loss are facts of life, yet we’re still always blindsided whenever they eventually slap us across the cheek, the look of surprise always visible across our naive and gullible faces time and time again. After a while, eyes start to glaze over with the unwelcome salt of a river of tears, and the bile from our stomach creeps up to our throat and physically burns like that of the emotional treachery, forever changing the molecular cells of our being and slowly breaking us down…or making us stronger. Penned into a spiralling musical creation of such narratives, Iman Ahmed seeks to spit revenge with her latest single ‘Eye to Eye,’ and no one is safe.
August 2010, it had been a glorious summer, but with the gradual run up into autumn we were met with showers and cool temperatures. The scene was set up for a perfect pathetic fallacy moment. Then, The Devil Wears Prada drops their most infamous EP, Zombie. The brutal and ruthless EP, which charted the descent into the chaos and brutality of a zombie apocalypse. Eleven years later and a world devastating pandemic, the band are giving us an eagerly anticipated sequel to this iconic EP.
Whilst both are inherently string explorations of contemporary music theory, post-rock stereotypically takes form in delicately interweaved textures, whereas math-rock is primarily jagged, angular and sidewinding. With this in consideration, it’s no wonder that most attempts to incorporate the two genres into a singular sound end in confusing and bewildering failure. However, every so often a band will emerge and unionise the two with seemingly effortless finesse.
One such act are Last Hyena, with their debut LP How Soon Is Mars? standing as a celestially imaginative exploration of the two genres. Belonging to the perpetually buzzing beehive of fermented creativity that is the alternative Bristol scene, Last Hyena are a product of a localised demographic, one devoted to purposefully labyrinthine musical endeavours. As longtime fans will know, their craft exists as twisting, unchained and often confusing experiments in instrumental prog madness, with their two EP’s thus far being the subject of both head scratching amusement and bemused smiles from their peers.
