The Matches
Whenever we are ready to negotiate a treaty between pop and punk, it might be a good idea to bring in Oakland's The Matches to figure out the terms. This slick four piece punk outfit can't quite seem to kick their pop habit, and the effect is an interesting somewhere in-between these two oft-at-arms genres. Of course the genres aren't really too far estranged, punk has always had a vapid but secret love affair with pop, and somewhere a while back there was Green Day and then there seemed to be very little difference between the two.
But while many of your boilerplate punk acts these days are just popsters in Johnny Rotten's clothing, The Matches come at it from the other end, exploring the interesting ways the two genres can still challenge each other. Shawn Harris isn't afraid, for example, of repeatedly harmonizing the F-Bomb or getting some spit on the microphone for the sake of proper pronunciation. The Matches are theatrical and polished and a bunch of other things that contradict pure punk pedigree, but they are also effortlessly fun.
The band tours tirelessly (just try having a Warped tour without them), so they could not have strayed too far away from tried and true punk formulas. They are currently between records, having released A Band In Hope, last summer, and are currently said to be testing demos for their next record due out this year. BRIAN CONANT
