Summer Cannibals - Can’t Tell Me No (2019)

Sometimes a band’s presence on a label tells you everything you need to know about what you’ll be experiencing. Portland band Summer Cannibals signed to Kill Rock Stars in 2016, and their quick-footed, angular punk rock would have been right at home early in the Olympia label’s history. Can’t Tell Me No hearkens back to the burgeoning PNW scene in the mid-to-late 90’s, to bands like The Breeders and Built to Spill, with streamlined riffs and a cheeky touch of melodicism that lies in the nebulous space between aspirational and unambitious. This ground’s already been broken many times before, but what’s been built here is well-constructed, with creative guitar lines and classic power chord beds cushioning Jessica Boudreaux’s lyrical daggers. It’s a little standard fare, a little on the unspecific side, but she sells her words with charisma and aplomb. Most concerned with the power imbalance in heterosexual relationships, she leaves her ex in the dust on the surf-rocking title track, addresses the politics of abuse claims on “Innocent Man” and tears apart whoever supports the current government (looking at you, Kellyanne Conway) on delightfully venomous opener “False Anthem”. Chock-full of comforting punk moments and undeniably accessible, Can’t Tell Me No boasts simple pleasures without getting too wild.