Punk Tank #03: A Listen to the New Mind Violence EP
Photo by Noah Bender, 2015
Though their outfit may consist of 3/5 current members of St. John’s hardcore mainstays Weak Link, Mind Violence effortlessly succeed at stamping out a distinct and impressionable bite while chewing through the six tracks on their newest EP.
“After recording a demo with Brandon Parsley in 2014, we worked on writing more songs with cohesion between them,” says guitarist Glen May, “After we had a few and had played them live two or three times, we went to Micah Brown’s “Suvla Estates” and laid the tracks down in a day or so. Phillips went in later to track vocals, and after Micah threw a couple mixes at us we found one we liked and sent it to Ritche Perez to master.”
The MV EP dropped online earlier this week ahead of it’s physical release and it’s already creating an itch in us punk folks’ tape decks. But until the cassettes are in our hands, we strongly encourage you to drop what you can for the digital download on the Mind Violence bandcamp.
Speaking to the more cohesive songwriting in the band’s second barrage of punk rippers, May explained the process of collaboratively locking in on the new material.
“The shift in our sound within the last year probably stems from us getting more comfortable playing with each other, and spending more time working on songs collaboratively.” says May, “In the earlier songs I think we spent more time trying to teach each other songs we wrote and practiced in our downtime. Now, usually, me or Dan will bring a riff to the jam with only an idea of where it might go. Parmiter (drums) inevitably guides the song into weird but interesting territories, and we spend a lot more time reconciling our own individual styles with our interpretation of someone else’s idea.”
Like any good punk band, Mind Violence are living in the now, man. But even if the new MV EP is a mere nod in the direction this well-oiled machine could potentially roll, the taste in our mouths makes has me salivating at the hope of maybe some day dropping a needle on a Mind Violence 7″.
“Once we have those we’ll probably put off a release show. Then, who knows?” says May, “We move slowly and have no long view so there has never really been a plan. I didn’t even know we were recording with Micah until the night before. I guess its just a question of how many more nights at the R.A.T. do we have before we burn out?”
Check out Mind Violence on bandcamp
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