PINHEAD GUNPOWDER: 8 Chords, 328 Words 7"

The title tells you everything. Eight chords. Three hundred and twenty-eight words. Pinhead Gunpowder were never interested in excess.

This EP is a neat summary of what made them worth paying attention to: Aaron Cometbus's plainspoken, diaristic lyrics sitting over melodic hardcore that hits harder than it has any right to given how pop the hooks are. It's the same tension that made the entire Lookout! Records scene matter, that feeling of people being genuinely smart about something that looked deceptively simple from the outside. If you've only heard the Green Day connection and never actually dug into this band, this is a good place to start. If you already know, you know.

7" vinyl EP, 45 RPM. East Bay, California.

Fans of: Operation Ivy, The Descendents, Jawbreaker