Cement Shoes – Too

Ahh yes, the Shoes, baby! Richmond, VA’s CEMENT SHOES lay down eight new tracks on, “Too”, their debut album. If you’re new to Da Shoes, their debut 7″ single on Feel It in 2018 left both reviewers and punk/hardcore millenials utterly confused and divided. The sage journalists at Razorcake even exclaimed, “This is the kind of genuine hardcore punk that could reach a pretty damn wide audience if the world were a different place.” Well, it’s 2019 now and the world hasn’t changed one degree for the better, buddy! Thankfully, Cement Shoes have returned to drive the point home with their finest-and-fullest-sounding record yet. The Shoes are truly cooking with gas now, bringing the best elements of snappy 80s punk/HC and 70s hard rock to sonic fruition, with the necessary tongue-in-cheek sense of humor intact. “Too” presents itself as a sonic rendezvous where the ’83 LA cast of punkers from “Suburbia”, “Funhouse” era Stooges, Alice Cooper Band, Totalitär, and Cider are all invited. The whole room reeks of cheap beer and reefer, wah pedals lie on top of dirty shag carpet, and Joe Pesci is there to emcee the whole thing. Confused yet? So are we. But screw it, here’s an album that sounds as timeless as the precious tape it was recorded on. A smoldering effigy to the way rock music used to simply exist and excite, and a shining example of where the unlimited data of the aughts can actually be stretched.