Rien à faire: Bipolar

vendredi 4 décembre 2020

Bipolar

Bipolar started not too long ago as the musical project of two Iranian friends living in NYC who, in addition to a strong love for punk and rock'n roll, seem to share a common hobby for cross dressing performances.

One of these guys also played keyboard in the Spits for some time.

They were soon joined by two other people on keyboard and drums to form a proper live line-up and satisfy their impulses of clownish transvestism.

Usually I am not a big fan of disguised bands (except in psychobilly maybe), I feel that most of the time it quickly turns into a sad joke everyone forces themselves to find funny. That's not always true of course and a solid/crazy live performance does not really depend on what pants you wear or not (well...).

Anyway these guys look like they are able to deliver both crazy live shows and great, catchy music, so let's go!

The band released their first two songs in March under the mysterious title 1-(800)-CALL-ICE.

As all great songs War Propaganda starts with a kazoo before turning into a heavy mid-tempo song with some post-punk and 80s US punk influences. The dual vocals make the atmosphere at the same time very alive and very anxious.

Pig sounds more like a badass rock'n roll song with the two guys singing together most of the time, it's heavy, it's simple, it's straight forward, it's super efficient!

Bipolar seems to have already made a name for themselves with their explosive live acts, it's one of this band which is all dedicated to live shows and start recording sometimes afterwards.

But these two songs are a great start!

Out on Slovenly Recordings a few days ago, Bipolar's 7" starts with a blast with Depression, a super catchy, mid-tempo, straight forward punk song. A soft keyboard melody warms up the place before the landing of the gang vocals and punchy guitar riffs :

"SOMETIME WHEN I GET UP, WHEN I GET OUT OF THE BED, I LOOK OUTSIDE THE WINDOW AND I WISH I WAS DEAD"

Brillant!

Unfortunately the rest of the EP is not as catchy, Virus is a-bit-too-classic track which does not really stays in the head.

Fist Fight and Sad Clown are quite surprising considering the other tracks, they're pure UK82 with some Oi! vibes... don't get me wrong they're great but not as "modern" or catchy as Depression.

Sad Clown makes me think a bit of Upright Citizens's Bomb Of Peace (Ok I know it's a german band but it's pure UK82 sound anyway). The two iranian friends seize the opporturnity for a little payback, Sad Clowns is of course about the leaders of their country of origin, Iran, and the religious extremists who rule since the end of the 70s.