Hearing Lipona’s debut EP, Pigeonholed reminded me a lot about my childhood. Their music is full of the high speed melodic punk rock that I used to love back when I was 16 and Lifetime was the biggest and best band on the planet. I don’t know the folks in Lipona but from what I hear they are still at that young and exciting time in their lives and all of the usual hallmarks show in their tunes, the overly busy drums, slicing guitars and the emotional vocals on top of it all.

The things that others might find cheesy, such as the lone acoustic track, “Shooty Hoops,” I find endearing. Once again, I was reminded of being a teenager, singing “Take Our Cars Now!” by Saves The Day, another band with a slow acoustic song on their first EP which was full of the melodic hardcore which was inspired by the aforementioned, Lifetime. I remember the boisterous singalongs to that song with my friends in my first car, so I can’t possibly knock the guys in Lipona for trying to elicit the same out of their listeners, especially when they do a good job of it.

At this point in my life, Lipona’s music is just a reminder of times gone by, but for younger listeners there is a lot to love. The band performs at a high level and songs like “Tragedy of Commons” rock with life, power and energy. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you can’t deny that the band clearly loves the music they are making and they do a fine job of playing it.

There is lots of potential here. How far they go and what style of music they will be playing two years from now is up in the air. Maybe they will crossover and making a career out of it the way many of my heroes did. Maybe still, if it all falls apart someday for some reason, they are guaranteed a slot as part of the soundtrack to a summer or a year that will always be remembered in the mind of at least one fan.

At the end of the day, that seems like just enough.

[mp3] Lipona – “Shooty Hoops”

Last 5 posts by Dan Berkman

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