Mutiny Pop

Album Review

When you look at the back of the album and see titles like "Weapons of Math Destructions," "My Heroes Are All A*****es," and "Help Me Stay Awake," it's easy to figure that the Copyrights are another one of those punk-pop bands with more bad jokes than rock action. But hearing Mutiny Pop settles the score fast enough — while this Illinois foursome has hooks and catchy riffs the way an alley cat has fleas, this is more punk than pop, with lots of muscle backing up Nick O'Neal and Brett Hunter's guitars, and bassist Adam Fletcher and drummer Luke McNeill driving the tempos like a truck driver who just got a new prescription for Benzedrine. And while these are flashes of humor in their music, the Copyrights are more about middle-class rage than playing for laughs; the opening cut, "Cashiers," maps out their perspective clearly enough ("We are the cashiers/We are the delivery boys/We are not ashamed/We got a life and we live it"), and along the way they throw verbal punches at math rock losers, wannabe rock stars, conformists, and incompetent authority while speaking with a weary but clear-eyed surety that suggests they have principles and aren't afraid to do something with them. Musically, the Copyrights aren't reinventing the wheel, but they play the standard punk changes with strength and fire, and they're a good bit smarter and tougher than most of the folks following similar paths — this is a band with a future, and Mutiny Pop shows their present is already worth a listen.