Chicago area’s Bumsy and the Moochers have been around for about a decade now with their high energy midwest ska punk sound. Their last album, Diet Violence, came out just over 2 years ago in 2022 and they continue to put out great music on Sell the Heart Records. This is their first new music in two years, and it feels like they somehow continue to get better with each release.
The EP begins with “Please Abduct Me”. It’s almost impossible to hear a song about aliens and not think about Tom DeLonge and Blink 182, and this song feels like it intentionally references that with the intro feeling very much like a Blink 182 song for the first few seconds as lead singer Caitlyn Edwards apologizes for thinking someone is crazy for believing in aliens as the aliens arrive to set the stage for the song. It doesn’t take long before the horns break in and the tempo commits to a full ska punk song about how the protagonist would rather be abducted than deal with the chaos, frustration, and disappointment that exists everywhere around us here on Earth- ranging from global warming, the justice system, capitalism, men in general, and hating your job, the chance to get abducted and taken away from it all feels more and more desirable as the song goes on.
The second track is called “Iowa” but has one of my favorite naming conventions, where the name of the song never actually appears in the lyrics. The song is about leaving your old life behind, and although people might try to being you back to that life, they don’t realize that everything they ever did hindered and hurt you, and you’ve moved on to something new. You have no interest in going back, and the only people that would benefit is them- there is nothing in that old life for you, and you’re not responsible for absolving them of the guilt for making you leave. Also, it’s a damn good song to just listen to- even if you aren’t paying attention to the lyrics, but this one resonated with me. In my version, it’s called Ohio.
The third and final song on this album is “Away From You”- and it’s catchy as fuck. It’s a damn fun ska punk track, with incredible saxophone, insane pop punk beats and catchy lyrics. It’s also the only time on the album that Dan Engelman takes the lead vocals, switching from femme to masc leads helps make all 3 songs pop just a little more. But really, the song about someone making you want to pull your hair out, or jump out of a plane to avoid them has never felt so damn catchy. Sure, the song is about hating someone and them making you want to never see them again, but damn I want to sing along with your cheerful misery.
The album ends with such a bop and the confirmation that Bumsy and the Moochers is at the very top of their game. With this being just an EP, I can’t help but believe that there will be a lot more in the future. I appreciate this tease as I wait for whatever comes next.
Written by Gimp Leg
