Vancouver B.C.’s Alien Boys have put out a punk rock record that is pretty close to flawless. If you don’t want to read any further, feel free to head over to their Bandcamp page and see if I’m right. But on the off chance that you need more convincing (from me), on Night Danger they have found the sweet spot where rocking really fucking hard (which they do) meets smart, passionate politics (which they have). I’m having a hard time thinking of something critical to say about them. Maybe it will come to me later.
First off, I love the name, not only because it is (I’m reasonably certain) a reference to the brilliant EP released by The Wipers in 1980, but also because Alien Boys is a great name for a band made up of five women. They put out a demo in 2016 called Self-Critical Theory. I can’t recall hearing it at the time, but it definitely had promise. It was pleasingly raw, chugging punk with melodies that lifted it above the run of releases in this vein. It was good, but it’s one of those things that looks better when you hear what came after.
Night Danger is in a whole other league. With two guitars the band absolutely thunders through nine cuts (plus the intro) of blazing, melody-tinged punk. There are a lot of reference points in the history of this genre that you could point to. Maybe Rabid Reaction-era Freeze (minus the stupid lyrics) crossed with early SNFU (no, not because they’re Canadian). Alternatively, they sound like The Gits with a second guitar and a lifetime supply of beer and steroids.
Alien Boys are unapologetically political and unflinchingly feminist. They have a kind of tonal similarity to War on Women in this respect, but with a slightly more goofball edge (I’m thinking here of the song “Bender” for which the video is fucking brilliant). Still, when they want to be serious they write songs that really strike home. One of the great failings of dudes (and here I do not exclude myself) is not hearing when women (especially those in the LGBTQ+ community) tell us that they don’t feel safe. “Whose Bodies?” is a great take on this:
When you go out to a nightclub, do you ever look around and wonder “is this safe?”
have you had to hit the ground?
does walking in the street with a loved one hand in hand make you do shoulder checks – because you feel demands from eyes that pry and ask you,
“why do you act this way?”
have you ever been cornered no chance to walk away
countless taken from us and more murdered every day
I’ll tell you something it takes strength to be out in this way
so we resist to this day
Night Danger is loaded with anthemic cuts that are passionately feminist and queer positive. It is, for this reason, not just a great record, but an important one as well. Writing great punk tunes is one thing. Using them as a vehicle for conveying messages that it is crucial that people hear is another. The ability to do both makes this one of the best punk records that I have ever heard.
After so many decades, one often finds oneself wondering if punk as a genre is played out. On the basis of this, you’d have to think it wasn’t. It retains its ability to deliver important messages. Punk always had an element (often a very strong element) of cis white guys mouthing political ideas that they didn’t really understand. But, at its best, it also created (and creates) spaces in which people marginalized people could talk about their lives and their experiences at the tops of their lungs.
Sometimes you have to shout at the world because the world doesn’t want to listen. Night Danger is a great example of that.
Photograph courtesy of the Alien Boys. All rights reserved.
