Lookit, Martians / The Cheap Pops – Split LP

We always love a good split here at The Punk Site, the hookups of complimentary, or sometimes not so compatible bands, gives you the chance to get to know a new band or two in a way that a track on a compilation can never quite achieve. This particular split album features two bands from Germany, Mannheim’s Lookit, Martians! and Ruhrpott’s The Cheap Pops, who have joined forces on this shared full length that will be released on CD, digital and vinyl formats this Halloween through Cat’s Claw Records in Europe and Punk Rock Radar in North America.

Side A, or just over half the album for those without turntables, features a handful full of tracks from Lookit, Martians! A band formed from the remains of The Barbecuties in a response to the boredom of lockdown. There’s a brief introduction on the opening track, Wrestling On Mars, before they shift into full tilt pop punk that draws influence in equal measure from the well known kings of pop punk, as well as the likes of The Moröns and Teenage Bottlerocket. This is half an album of pure manic pop songs that flash by in a blur and leave you grinding like an idiot.

From the opening chords of Brothers Of Destruction it’s clear that this split contains two complimentary bands, although The Cheap Pops bring more of a buzzsaw edge to their brand of punk pop that owes a debt to the Ramones, Screeching Weasel and Dan Vapid. The initial positive impression is signed and sealed with the Ramonescore of I Don’t Want To Hang Out With You No More and two more slices of American fuelled pop punk. The split, that is appropriately wrapped in cartoon artwork depicting a intergalactic grudge match, delivers it’s nine tracks in just over twenty minutes, it features two bands who are opposite sides of the same coin, if you like one, you will like them both. You won’t hear anything new, but it will put a smile on your face.