The Punk Site 2024 Top 40: #5 Pinhead Gunpowder – Unt

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Pinhead Gunpowder, who feature the quartet of Billie Joe ArmstrongAaron CometbusJason WhiteBill Schneider who all have links to Green Day, made a welcome return in 2024 and released their new full length, Unt, via 1-2-3-4 Go Records. Returning with their first new music in 16 years, Unt is the latest album from a band who never truly had a direct mission statement or cohesive line up. In other words, they were about as punk as you can get in terms of ethos, camaraderie and disorganisation before even touching on the music. Whilst they haven’t lost one iota of lackadaisical uncertainty, the half hour of frenetic Punk Popcore present on Unt proves that they haven’t missed a beat either.

“Pinhead Gunpowder started writing songs in 1990 and made our first 7” the following spring. Nearly every year since, we’ve met up to play. Some years we recorded, five albums and eleven EPs, and some years we played shows. But since 2010, we’ve been playing just for ourselves, something bands forget to do. Rather than “writing for the new album” or rehearsing to get ready for tour, we went back to the basement every year. We lived in the house we’d built, remembering how we’d made the music for each other in the first place. We played all over the world, well, at least Oakland, Singapore and New York, but only for each other. We worked on the reissues of our back catalog, too, and found ourselves fonder of each other and more family-like than ever. A new record was only a matter of time, but between the members’ other bands, projects, and families that was hard to find. When we finally did, we were all surprised. We think it’s our best yet, our catchiest, most collaborative, and most poignant.”