Boids – Superbafrango

If you’re a stickler for hook heavy pop-punk, melody rich punk rock, or any other narrowly defined punk genre, then pass on by Boids.  You won’t find anything clean or predictable about this hectic Montreal four-piece.  In fact, you’d be hard pressed to pin these rabid songsmiths down to any traditional category.  Even innovative self-identified slang like “hard-pop core-punk” comes up short.  Boids are an eclectic bunch to put it lightly, and their sophomore full length, Superbafrango, won’t disappoint those looking to let down their hair and convulse wildly to this madhouse of spastic, ebullient tunes.

This time around, Boids run the gamut of punk tunes, from unapologetic ragers to peppy little ditties.  Opener “Human Bomb” commits to the realm of old school frenetic punk.  “Give me all your money I’m a human bomb” barks the band with their underlying 80’s hardcore punk allegiance.  Propelled by all sorts of harsh angular riffs and a screeching explosive finale, the song furthers comparisons to age old icons like Black Flag, in line with labelmates The BCASA.  When the band gets a shot of adrenaline, all bets are off to the safety of you and your loved ones.  A track like “Bless This Mess” amps up the tempo and sprays a hail of guitar and vocal gunfire like a madman.  The result is as sloppy, thrashy and as unyielding as a shrapnel bomb.  Likewise, “Plague Dogz” channels the incessant paranoid ramblings of a tinfoil hat sporting conspiracy theorist as they shout manically with inane insistence, “the lizard people put a chip in my brain.”

In truth, once you get over the initial shock of it all, Superbafrango harnesses considerably more structure than their debut, We Stalk Each Other Like Animals.  Songs like “Automatic Satisfaction” and “Valois Loveletter” revisit the Ramonesey-style pop-punk of Riverboat Gamblers and Dead To Me with little hesitancy.  The former hops along at a rumbling pace and “woo-ooh” styled vocals with a cheeky disregard for previously encountered chaos, while the latter marches to a steady rolling rhythm that’s every bit as catchy as it is rambunctious.  “Mole People” combines that trademark Boids humour with a riff-heavy mid-tempo guitar crunch that’s crazier and more far out than their past efforts.  Songs like “Gogama” and “Money Kollektor” playfully channel a disregard for rationality in a way that’s reminiscent of the short lived by highly contagious Awesome Snakes.  That satisfying, unpredictable nature culminates in a punked up cover of the The Silhouette’s 50’s doo-wop classic, “Get A Job,” and it couldn’t be a more fitting showpiece of Boids’ deep rooted pervasivity.

Once again, Boids showcase their raw and ragged talents with an outside of the box style that doesn’t just step beyond known boundaries, but seems happy to kick them to the curb in the process.  Superbafrango throws everything you know about punk rock in the blender and mixes it up.  While pretty much every element of the genre is present, the track sequencing and in-song ordering of it all will keep you guessing.  Perhaps more accurately, Boids has turned out an album that can most accurately be described as Boids; how very Boids of them.