you may remember a couple of weeks ago, i talked about “shots of love”, a fun, rockin’ throwback single by ditch boys. i speculated that the upcoming ep, seven minutes with ditch boys, might be in fact seven minutes. i was wrong — it’s a little over eight minutes. and that little detail speaks volumes about ditch boys as a band, namely that they like to lean into rock-n-roll tropes only to subvert them. and hey, what do you know, their debut ep came out on a tuesday, which is when all of the albums of yesteryear used to be released. nineties (or older) kids remember.
ditch boys might be a 2010’s connecticut band, but they channel post-stones london. their music is loud and rhythm-heavy, based on riffs and swagger. these are the songs that you’d expect to sound good in a concrete pub with a few beers, and indeed, when i saw ditch boys play at stella blues in new haven, they sounded great.
their live show was fun and energetic, and ditch boys have captured that magic on seven minutes with ditch boys. it was tracked and recorded in a studio, but if you told me it was recorded live, i’d believe you. for a debut, it’s impressively realized, and at only three tracks, it easily leaves you hungry for more.
here are my favorite three moments on seven minutes with ditch boys:
“shots of love”: all right, so yes, the chorus is a cool and catchy, but that’s not my favorite part of the song. no, my favorite is the pre-chorus, where mike holler puts a british lilt on “club” or “thumb” or “car”. the way the lead guitars punctuate each rhyme is an inspired choice.
“hot tongue”: who doesn’t love a good stop-and-start riff? “hot tongue” continually pauses itself to rip open some distortion, stop for a second, and then lurch right back into it. it’s a great pre-verse that allows for some cool lead-guitar. but my favorite moment of this track is when ditch boys enter the second verse after this breakdown. things get quiet for just a bit — you know it’s going to get loud again, and that anticipation
“no exit”: this is a close decision — maybe a flip of the coin-type-of-decision. as the runner-up, the chorus is sharp and catchy, and the way it wrenches itself into the song is a blast. but the real winner here is the intro where mike holler belts out “so stop right now”. it’s something i found myself rewinding to several times.
so go ahead and check out seven minutes with ditch boys on bandcamp or on spotify.
