Karate High School – Invaders
Paul McGuire may be pop-punk’s Jesus. Or at least he’s learned how to make it a bit more refreshing in a scene oversaturated with bubblegum bands so similar they could swap monikers without the bat of a listener’s eyelash. With his third album under the Karate High School banner, entitled Invaders, he makes an attractive Frankenstein of a record pieced together from the 80’s (keyboards!), 90’s (rock!), and 2000’s (gang vocals and hand claps!). And I thought I stopped liking pop-punk (read: thought the genre was dead) in 2004.
With songs about zombies (“Zombies Everywhere”) and space suits (“One Trip Around The Sun”) and mechanical girlfriends (“Fell In Love With A Robot”), McGuire artfully blends his hooky pop tunes with lyrics very obviously penned by a living, breathing, youthful, sardonic dude. Really, its pretty apparent; his songs are much less concerned with relating to girl and guy teens whose perpetually pout-y mouths are filled with braces, but more for those slightly more discerning individuals prepared to decipher the (usually) playful metaphors meticulously planted in his writing.
And even when McGuire threatens to punch you in the face (“If You Don’t Live Here, Don’t Surf Here”), it’s because he doesn’t want you to surf on his property, and because you’ll never be as cool as him and his crew. It goes to show that even when McGuire is “mad,” he’s gleefully jamming away on a keyboard playing a tune stolen from a cute Japanese video game (I’m guessing).
But, by far, the best part is that the expected generic tracks (“Under The Microscope” and “The Horror Show”) are severely outnumbered by the creative, playful, and well-written songs.
To be fair, it’s going to be difficult to revive a genre like pop-punk that has been absolutely fucking trampled into the ground. But if there’s an opportunity left to still become popular with a beleaguered label like “pop-punk,” Paul McGuire and his Karate High School will most assuredly find it. To an area in music that I had long ago given up on, KHS injects a little bit of hope.
