Album Of The Week: The So So Glos Blowout

If you know one thing about Brooklyn punk band the So So Glos, it's that they're good friends and frequent tourmates of Titus Andronicus, and if you know two things about them, it's that they're OGs in the Brooklyn DIY scene, having helped found venues like the Market Hotel and Shea Stadium. The Brooklyn DIY scene isn't really much help in understanding how the So So Glos sound, though; the borough is currently home to roughly one billion bands, and they don't exactly share any connecting threads. But even if you didn't know anything about the band's Titus connection, you'd probably reach for the comparison after hearing about 15 seconds of Blowout, the So So Glos' sophomore album. They've got that same ragged throat-ripped roars, those serrated beer-punk guitars, those big dynamics that practically demand drunken singalongs. But they don't have the scope and ambition that Titus showed even on their first album, before the Civil War came into the discussion. Their songs are content to be big, fast, fun anthems with nothing much to say about the greater outside universe beyond, like, "fuck smartphones." They're an alternate-universe Titus, a Titus that's content to kick ass in small and specific ways. And as Blowout proves, that's a pretty great thing to be.