Drinkscussing: Shrug Dealer - Infested

Skate punk time with our friends in Shrug Dealer is the best time. Even when said friends aren’t here and it’s just their record that’s here.

And us at music…di…shrugs here

We give shrugs, they deal shrugs. They’re the professionals

I’ve always had a weak spot for skate punk, and it’s not a sound we hear a lot in NYC, so I’m glad these guys decided to move here and start that band!

Ahaha! (Obligatory) Dad joke ✅

Yea skate punk is to you as late 2000s orgcore is to me

~ Participation Trophies ~

Skate punk does love their sound bites as introduction

I was really intrigued by that clip

Nice and fast & riffs that are all over the place. Look, that’s what I’m talking about.

Equal part catchy and technical.

Not sunny enough for skate punk (NYC) but I’m getting proven wrong with this record so far haha

Harmonies on point here

Abuse of your pre-loaded justification: “I tried my best”

~ Tilt Mode ~

I think, but I’m not sure, this song is about cutting back on drinking

Tilt Mode seems an apt title, then

Has some really good vocal harmonies and parts that, when more familiar with the song, would make great singalongs.

Catchy, in any case tho

Whoas ✅

This outro is dope

The American college experience is always weird to me. There’s a line that’s something like “I might share tendencies with fray boys and people from my dorm I hated” and… I loved the college parties with our compsci nerds

Our student association (Information Systems, Computer Science and AI) was known for being the heaviest drinkers and partying the hardest. Here it’s more of a jock / frat thing.

I’ve only experienced that aspect on the periphery via college bars I went to in the city with my high school friends; namely a bar near NYU that was uninhabitable on weekends because drink/bro culture was fuckin cringe.

Get drunk with nerds. It’s fun!

Feels like that crowd would be too intellectual for me. Ah, paradoxes…

Oh, they won’t.

Hahah fair enough

~ Summer Camp ~

Song about borders?

Man I love skate punk but keeping up with the lyrics is tough.

Hm. Heard imaginary lines just now…so perhaps?

Soundbite gives it away

At the end*

Yep, there we are. Such a fast-paced short angry song!

Right to the point. I dig

Reminds me a lot of Antillectual

~ Please Turn Off the Gramophone ~

They’re sending out an army but no one…

Wait wrong song.

Very This Is a Standoff-esque intro here.

Yep, we were just doing compare/contrast

Yeah because you never listened to This Is a Standoff

Wonder what this song title is a reference to

We can ask them, and don’t even need the internet, they’re playing again in three weeks!

Wooot

Okay this is one of their more accessible songs on this record, I think?

You know me. Skatepunk: an acquired taste

I’m telling on you next time we see Oh The Humanity.

Editing note: Marcus is the one who got me into Oh! The Humanity. He also claims he doesn’t really like skate-punk. He’s a man of many contradictions

The second half of this song is really hooky, I dig

Would have definitely been honorable mention for a single if it hasn’t been already imo

~ Get to the Point ~

Get to the point.

blink and you’ll miss the point. literally

~ The Call of the Epigon ~

So these guys actually asked Propagandhi if they could use one of their lines, got permission, and then Propagandhi never let them know whether they listened to the track or not.

#themoreyouknow

This opening breakdown slaps

This song is the closest it gets to their last EP. They doubled down on the skate-punk on this one, but this song is a bit more later Propagandhi drawn out, which their first EP had a lot of as well.

Maybe because this was the single but I remember being really fond of this song

Appreciate the quasi-jazzy thing on that bridge

Ha, did I spot a Refused reference?

You did!

I heard the same one you did I’m sure

A lot going on with this song but it all worked to me

Okay that’s sneaky, the reference is in “that New Noise that never came” as a line, the riff following and then goes into a Propagandhi line

~ Desperate Housewives of Ada County ~

Longest song on the EP

Hah, I don’t know why I know this but Ada County is where Boise is located

This song would’ve also worked well on their first EP.

It’s a bit slower with more singing that shouting.