After the refined and wistful power pop of 2018's
A Million Dollars to Kill Me
,
Joyce Manor
's
Songs from Northern Torrance
feels like an archaeological dig into the grimy punk basements of West Coast suburbia. A rarities compilation celebrating the California emo-punk band's formative years, this engaging ten-song curiosity is divided into two distinct sections of lo-fi charm. Named after an apartment complex near frontman
Barry Johnson
's home in the city of Torrance, the group was purportedly formed in 2008 following a drunken conversation between
Johnson
and fellow guitarist
Chase Knobbe
in the Disneyland parking lot. Revealed here in the first five songs, their early exploits as a mostly acoustic punk duo with occasional drums are surprisingly durable in spite of what are essentially field recordings and tape-recorded demos. Pre-dating the more conventional pop-punk route they would later take as a full band, the immediacy of songs like "House Warning Party" and "DFHP" in their original stripped-down format affirm the innate melodicism
would carry throughout the band's career, but hints at the rawer direction
might have taken. Songs six through ten (or side two) are taken directly from the band's 2010 EP,
Constant Headache
, and feature the full-bore screamo punk-pop band they had morphed into by that point. Again, the raw aggression and ferocity of their delivery does battle with
's affinity for pop hooks, though the former elements come to the fore more aggressively on these songs. The punishing tempos and brevity of "Constant Nothing" and "Done Right Discount Flooring" border on hardcore and are rife with the frustrated youthful energies of pent-up suburban ennui. A testament to their early angst and a blueprint for paths both taken and not,
is an interesting snapshot of a band whose maturation from that same point of origin has been a major theme in their later catalog. ~ Timothy Monger