Always a band sitting on the edge of the unhinged and uncomfortable, Pissed Jeans have been silently stewing since the closing the cycle of their 2017 album Why Love Now. Produced alongside No wave artist Lydia Lunch, the album fully embraced elements of post-punk in its greasy self-critique of masculinity and male aggression. Seven years later, Half Divorced sees the band shrug off the No Wave and Post-Punk musical influences and step back towards their blend of DC hardcore punk, abrasive noise rock and trad punk alongside sardonic and barbed lyricism.
Pissed Jeans waste little to no time with album opener ‘Killing All The Wrong People’, high-tempo d-beat and blistering bassline drives the song forward with discordant guitar melodies introducing a sense of noisy danger from the get go. The chaotic ode to USHC continues on the sub two minute ‘Anti-Sapio’, bring a hefty skate punk chorus. That speaks to the album as a whole, with most of the twelve tracks on offer sitting somewhere between one and two minutes in length and favouring the unstable high-tempo punk and hardcore; singles ‘Cling to a Poisoned Dream’ and ‘Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt’, along with other tracks like ‘Alive With Hate’, ‘Seatbelt Alarm Silencer’ and Pink Lincolns cover ‘Monsters’ fully embracing classic USHC chops, very literally in the latter’s case.
“The longest tracks on the album are the most diverse and break up the nail biting ferocity.”
Other tracks explore a variety of different territories, ‘Helicopter Parent’ showcases dramatic, pompous cock rock stomp that’s the audio equivalent to a middle finger to the face. ‘(Stolen) Catalytic Converter’ has riffs steeped pendulous bravado, a nasty swinging wrecking ball of a track, wailing feedback pierces the instrumental between the cathartic swings and Matt Korvette’s confrontational vocals. The longest tracks on the album are the most diverse and break up the nail biting ferocity. Initial single ‘Moving On’ has a strong melodic and post-hardcore influence that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Fucked Up release. ‘Everywhere Is Bad’ is classic skate-punk, with a massive nihilistic chorus, sarcastic tongue planted firmly in cheek as the band call and response in the verses: “Philadelphia? Trashy Streets. San Francisco? No more freaks”, venturing to logical absurdity towards the end of the track: “Paradise? Lousy food. Hell? Too many dudes”. Finally, ‘Junktime’ is a lit fuse hissing, threatening to detonate as Korvette makes an impassioned speech that slowly builds to a unhinged explosion into further frenetic hardcore, dipping back into subdued and bubbling tension, rinse and repeat for the five and half minute run.
There is a clear maturation in their accessibility as a punk outfit, the layers of grease somewhat wiped away, oppressive noise now used a little more sparingly and the unhinged vocals reigned in to a degree. Recording engineer Don Godwin has done an excellent job capturing the band’s noisy and chaotic nature whilst keeping the recordings reigned in and clean. Brad Fry’s guitar tones are suitably cutting and abrasive when needs be, Randy Huth’s bass work is hefty and powerful but clean allowing his complex bass lines to shine through. Sean McGuiness’ drums are full on and Korvette’s vocals are the most intelligible they’ve ever been whilst holding their feral edge. Much like Pissed Jeans other works, the lyrics retain a pointed sense of humour when tackling miserable subject matter; whether overtly joking about ‘Sixty Two Thousand Dollars in Debt’ and barely making a dent, ‘Helicopter Parents’ or the shitty state of the world with ‘Everywhere Is Bad’. After nearly twenty years of making music, becoming fathers, getting married and divorced, there is still an aggressive and dissatisfied bitter undertone: “Cheesing into my cameraphone / Pretending that I’m not alone / Life’s the first thing that we all postpone.”
Half Divorced is a laser focussed and in your face collection of blistering hardcore and skate punk throwback anthems. Pissed Jeans are so often confrontational and uncomfortable, it’s a refreshing change of pace that they tackle the anxieties of adulthood through a lens, that more often than not, is just down right fun even when wading into darker territories. At just over thirty minutes in length it makes for Pissed Jeans shortest album, none the less urgent with twelve tracks crammed into the short run time. The band and their messages are as electric as ever and touch on political and social hot topics in a way that only Pissed Jeans are able to achieve.