Four or five days out of the week, I’m driving home from work constantly changing radio stations. There never seems to be one station that I can be set on for the whole ride, as I’m constantly rolling my eyes at the songs that I’m hearing. It seems almost like everything blends together and sounds exactly the same.
Luckily, sometimes I get to come home and listen to music that doesn’t sound the same as everything else. Today, this music was Honduras. Coming from Bushwick, New York, Honduras was created in a basement by Patrick Phillips and Tyson Moore.
Honduras Puts the Work In
Being an artist in New York requires a lot of hard work and dedication, not to mention countless nights spent in small clubs in front of small crowds. The classic punk sound that Honduras brings to you, dripping with that dedication and live experience, is what sets them apart from other music that you’ll hear today. Blending a West Coast surfer vibe with classic grunge vocals makes Honduras a band that you’ll appreciate for more than just their invigorating stage presence.
The late ’70s-early ’80s sound of Honduras’ latest track — “That Old Feeling” from their new EP, Gathering Rust, which was released on March 4 — bears an uncanny resemblance to what you may have heard while surfing on a sunny day in California. (I’ve never been, but I’ve seen a lot of movies, okay?)
The feel-good rhythm of the ballad breaks straight into vocals that resemble Sex Pistols, but with hints of The Arctic Monkeys. Combining reverberating melodies with impressive drumming and guitar sequences that you can feel vibrating through your body makes this track infectious, one you’ll catch yourself humming along to even if you don’t know the words.
Instrumental After First Third
However, if it is words you’re looking for, you’ll find this song a bit lacking. After about the 1:10 mark, you won’t find anything but continuous guitar, drum, and bass instrumentals. I feel like this song could have remained strong throughout if some sort of lyrics were incorporated. The last two minutes of the song are good, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like they’re missing something.
Leaving you without words for more than half of the song after you’ve already built up the first minute just seems to cause a bit of a momentum loss. Though if you stick around to the 2:30 mark, the song speeds up into a head banging surf-punk frenzy, which almost makes up for the vocal silence you’ve encountered.
Overall, “That Old Feeling” is one of those tracks that starts out really strong, but seems to lose its power as it goes on. You can definitely appreciate the song for what it is, but I feel as though it could have been just a bit more.
You can stream the rest of Gathering Rust on SoundCloud.
