Review Summary: The vinyl with the additional two acoustic tracks and extra artwork is an excellent addition to any punk enthusiast’s collection.
This review is for the vinyl version of The Weight That You Buried which comes with two excellent additional acoustic covers of Your Back Porch and No Good.
Building from the successes and promise shown in Don’t Come Home, Knuckle Puck put out their second EP The Weight That You Buried, capturing listeners ears and attention. The Weight That You Buried really is raw unfiltered emotion at its best. This is the type of music that only 20 year olds trying to find their footing and identity can make, and have it be so earnest and authentic in its clumsiness and honesty, without that being a real downside. The artwork that comes with the EP is also excellent, and builds the case for forking over the cash and space for including this in your record collection and listening time, which I would strongly recommend.
The guitars are unrefined, finding interesting licks and transitions but really only coming into their own in the stand-out of the record, No Good. A song so good they had to include it twice. John Siorek’s drumming does seem to be overcompensating at times for when the guitars fail to carry a song or a lick, but really add to the charm and enjoyment of the offering. Indeed, this EP has charms often in its unrefined areas as in its highs. The opening track Everything Must Go features this perfectly, and is a good summary of the EP as a whole. Solid riffs, relatable yet unsophisticated lyrics, occasional missteps and moments of awkwardness, culminating together in an ending worth travelling through the song for. As if that isn’t a perfect metaphor for your early 20’s.
The unapologetic and energetic No Good is the obvious standout of the EP, and will be the song most will come back to replay. It really is a testament to the band that a song this good can be laid down so early in their career. Luckily, since I have the vinyl and No Good is towards the end, there are enough flourishes and high moments spread throughout the rest of the EP to make putting it on for a spin an enjoyable time. Your Back Porch is also a great punk track, and certainly has been more relatable at different times in my life, with Stateside being really the only time the EP can drag.
I like to think that what I own and listen to is an important piece of art. Recorded in cheap plastic, which they have attempted to transmute to gold with the young adult alchemy of pouring your heart and passion earnestly into the things you care about. Here, recorded for posterity are the hopes, dreams, thoughts and reflections of a few young men from Chicago just trying to make their way in the world, who managed to pen a few bangers that really do aim for the heights of punk pedigree.
This may not have been the start or the end of Knuckle Puck, but it was an important step, and it feels important. Whenever I pluck this record out to play it, I can’t help but feel it tug on my heart strings. The album cover artwork is beautiful and poignant, the EP feels nostalgic yet energetic. The sounds move me and make me smile with their imperfections. Oh to be 20 again.
