I used to think I was outgrowing pop punk. Maybe I didn’t feel as helpless as I used to, or maybe the scene turned me off of it. But the longer I spend cooped up at home, the more I need it. Longfriend Timefriend has become a important part of a balanced music diet in my household, and their latest single “If Me Dies, Me Dies” is that biiiiig chunk at the bottom of the food pyramid (aka I just listen to it 40% of the time I’m awake).
When Longfriend Timefriend tells me they’re heavily influenced by the Philadelphia basement punk scene, especially knowing they’re from South Philly specifically… god, it takes ever fibre of my being to not make… the joke we all want to make. We all want to say it, right? How many amazing bands are hanging out together in that very South Philly basement before they come out swinging?? It’s an update on an old favourite, channeling those same emotion-clad lyrics with punchy guitar riffs. Specifically the line about getting “stuck in wet cement” makes me feel all kinds of forlorn and despondent like no other genre ever could.
If you like this track, the band just released an entire album under the same name and it’s like… the perfect balance of midwest pop punk and a slightly more reserved alt rock. Enough angst to get your blood pumping, but better equipped to follow you through other moods or phases in your life.
