Following a pair of demos shared online in 2022, the four-song
Stay Young
EP is the first material to surface from
Finnoguns Wake
, a project led by former
Royal Headache
vocalist
Shogun
and co-vocalist/guitarist/songwriter
Finn Berzin
. Though
is a short release, it offers up a mission statement from the band with non-stop energy and melodically charged punk reliant on a special chemistry shared by the two core members. Those who were fans of
's ramshackle soul-punk will be immediately taken with the
-led songs "Blue Skies" and "Strawberry Avalanche," both of which feature the singer's distinctively full-throttle but deftly controlled lead vocals. While these songs still have some of the fuzz and grit that made
exciting, they're slower and more sophisticated. Touches of psychedelia and wistful pop recall early
Oasis
if they were playing at full volume in a dive bar.
Berzin
's songs offer a bounding, fresh-faced counterpoint to
's often world-weary perspectives. "So Nice" is a fast, jaunty tune that brings together the idealistic pep of
the Clash
at their best with the straightforward song construction of touchstones like
Hüsker Dü
or
Social Distortion
. "Lovers All" is more riff-focused but equally catchy. Where the earlier demos were roughly produced,
and
are backed by a full band on these recordings, and blaring keyboard and organ sounds from
Gabrielle De Giorgio
fill out the caustically catchy arrangements nicely.
flies by in about the same amount of time as a jam-packed 7" single, but delivers a lot of heart and intensity in its less than 15-minute runtime. It's a great starting point that suggests even better things will follow when
gathers more songs and further perfects the formula they're just diving into here. ~ Fred Thomas