Garage-punk trio, Terry Malts releases new material this week via Slumberland Records with a 7” entitled Insides EP. The story of Terry Malts’ formation isn’t one that you’ll hear from the direct source, rather the Frisco-based band has deliberately kept their association with their previous project, Magic Bullets, tight lipped. With their debut release Killing Time in 2010, Terry Malts immediately adopted an alternative approach to pop-punk tunes that detached themselves from the cleaner, quieter, surfer sounds of Magic Bullets. Perhaps not wanting to pigeon-hole themselves with the sounds of their past, Terry Malts have done a swell job busting into the power-punk scene.
At just eight minutes short, Insides EP lays the blueprint of a solid punk album. Granted, the EP consists of just four songs, but three tracks in, heavyweight “Don’t” is the beefiest of the jams, taking up more than a third of the record. Bigger proves better for Insides as “Don’t” is the winning track from the compilation. If you were to depict Terry Malts sound using a Venn diagram, the majority of their songs fall into the intersection of punk meets pop. Opening track, “Let You In” serves as the case and point for this claim, but Terry Malts goest ahead and evidences it further with “Grumpiest Old Men,” and “Hidden Bay.” The rhyming and unmistakably clear lyrics of “Let You In” express the twitterpated feelings that accompany the crush of a pretty lady and unrequited love, which let’s face it—everyone can relate to. “Don’t” shreds hard from start to finish and strays a wee bit further from its more pop-influenced brethren. The track elicits a rawness that will have you moshing in your own living room.
Every album since Terry Malts’ formation resides somewhere in the hierarchy of punk. Each song is blanketed in fuzzy guitar riffs with a purposeful sound of chaotic noise. However, they tend to keep one foot planted safely in the indie-pop genre, which certainly helps to create broader appeal. Insides expands on the band’s previous sounds, encroaching on pop more so than they have to date. Perhaps after diverging from the associations of their past, Terry Malts has reached a point, after three albums and numerous EPs, where they felt the need to revisit a familiar genre, and the style is well rendered in their hands.
