Smirk / Zhoop: Split cassette

Description

With the creativity licks of SMIRK and snottiness of ZHOOP, this split tape has the best of both worlds. Two solo projects on one tape!

Our take: Loopy Scoop Tapes brings us a well-matched split cassette featuring three songs each from these two punk rock solo projects. Smirk youll remember from their debut LP on Feel It Records and their recent EP on Total Punk / Iron Lung, both of which got a lot of play around Sorry State. Their three tracks arent as poppy as some of my favorite songs on the EP, showcasing the more punk rock side of the band. No complaints about that! While Smirk is a solo project (at least on their recordings), their songs have the dynamism of a full band, with a lot of interesting push and pull between the songs rhythms and the vocal and lead guitar melodies. Its a cut above your typical egg punk-y solo project, and even these three raw tracks have that certain something special about them. As for Zhoop, weve carried a ton of this prolific bands releases, but I havent dug into them yet they have so many limited cassette releases I didnt know where to start. Perhaps its because Im hearing them next to Smirks more measured and composed songs, but Zhoop here sounds to me like a snotty, catchy hardcore band in the vein of Boogada Boogada Boogada-era Screeching Weasel, but filtered through the sound of contemporary post-Coneheads punk. Each of their three tracks gets faster and tougher-sounding than the previous one, with the opener Fighting for Control running at a similar clip to Smirks tracks, I Dont Care getting angrier, and then Breathe erupting to a full-on hardcore sprint.