FUTURE VIRGINS "GRAVITY" EP (Plan-It-X South, 2006)

Some, especially those of us who came of age during the folk-punk explosion, may be predisposed to wince at the mere mention of Plan-It-X Records. Although I count myself in these ranks, I must admit it's often unfair. When the ultra-DIY label comes up in conversation, I tend to gloss over the fact that they have Delay, Dead Friends and Heathers to their recent credit. My mind instead goes straight to Best Friends Forever, Punkin Pie and Ghost Mice. The fact that PIX deals nearly exclusively in the increasingly useless Compact Disc format doesn't help their case with me either. Luckily, this "branch" of the loved/maligned label is run by the more level-headed codgers in This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb and releases lots of fine, drunken, Southern punk rock on vinyl.

This is the first FUTURE VIRGINS 7", and for my money the best thing I have heard by them. A drunk, gruff, suicidal pop-punk supergroup of sorts, with the singerman from the illustrious SEXY and folks from ADD/C. If this pedigree means anything to you, it should tell you that you're in for an exercise in musically-competent raw pop. The guitar tone is twangy, the recording is coherent but noticeably DIY, the singing is surprisingly croon-ey, and the hooks do not let go. The first blast seems to be orchestrated purely to demonstrate that the band can trade in all-out chaos as well, a musical theme they occasionally revisit, but it's over in forty seconds and making way for the "Followed To The Grave"'s ode to criminality. If you only check out one song, make it the next one, "Broken Down" - the chorus would fit in a stadium if its surroundings weren't too dirty to be anywhere but the basement of a punk house. This is, I believe, the only record they have that is currently out of print, so you can check it out HERE, and seek out their other three seven inchers if you're so inclined.