LIQUIDS – Hot Liqs Revenge

Originally released on Neck Chop records in 2018 and been out of print for years, finally repressed in anticipation of Liquids upcoming European tour. Generally speaking, the punk rock ethos is one slightly muddled by its own paradoxical philosophy; the idea that, as an accessible do-it-yourself three-chord act, you’re expected to exercise the genre’s “devil-may-give-no-fuck” attitude in order to create confrontational bouts of raw, intimate music that barks in the face of your oppressors — internal, external, or otherwise –, and celebrate everything that makes punk so intrinsically cathartic and empowering. But of course, all of this means jack-shit when nobody can make out what the fuck you’re saying. That’s why a band like Liquids — brainchild of Indiana’s Mat Williams, best known for his time playing in The Coneheads, Dagger, The Fritz, Guinea Kid, Scabs, and Pukeoid — is one whose worth as a garage-y, glam-like solo project is elevated so far beyond its immediate deluge of vibrant, squeal-prone hooks and brilliantly infectious rock ‘n’ roll melodies. Since the band’s debut in early 2015, Liquids has always been an honest, shamelessly human introspective projected through the lens of highly electrifying rock ‘n’ roll fits, beautifully melding garage, pop, blues, and even hardcore sensibilities into a perfectly condensed lo-fi punk rock chassis. It is music so unabashedly pained and discontented, with lyricism veiled in a venomous sheet of nihilism and destructive impulses craving immediate discharge, that it only serves to magnify the songs’ uncontainable amounts of upbeat, yet bittered passion. As intense as it is intelligent, Mat’s continual usage of the Liquids handle has culminated in a discography chock-full of songs guaranteed to be underground hits once we’re all dead and gone. “Hot Liqs’ Revenge” is no different, compiling an assortment of pre-existing recordings onto one convenient wheel ‘o’ wax, exemplifying the eclectic, savant-tier songwriting coming out from one of the most rightfully-revered D.I.Y. musicians of the Midwest. Long live Liquids.