The Satisfying Anger of Remo Drive

My taste in music is somewhat pretentious. I listen to genres like indie, alt-rock, pop punk, punk, dream pop, etc. Which drives me to places like Spotify or to my friends to get some recommendations on what to listen to. So it's safe to say that I listen to plenty of underground stuff that not many people would know about. Bands like Joyce Manor, The Wonder Years, Real Friends, etc. So, Remo Drive is one of the many bands that I've stumbled upon—or rather, my friend just kind of posted about it on his Instagram (Thanks, Anthony!). Remo Drive is a relatively new band that was created in 2014, having only a few EP's and only one album, Greatest Hits, which was released last year as of this writing. The band has self-described themselves as emo while also incorporating indie, pop punk, punk, and post-rock.

So what makes Remo Drive satisfying to listen to? What makes them such a hit? Well, it's obviously in the way they play and it's all thanks to vocalist Erik Paulson's style of singing. Stephen Paulson plays his guitar so angrily yet so happily and of course Sam Mathys' skill at keeping a strong beat to tap my foot to definitely helps. Every song they play is contradictorily good. What I mean by that is if you listen to Remo Drive, you may think that they're just like any other teenage punk band. Decent sounding guitars and childish lyrics. It sounds so good, yet the lyrics are not that deep. Yet if you keep listening, if you sink into the background, you can feel yourself becoming happy; you can imagine every member of the band smiling as they play, and I think that is what makes Remo Drive so satisfying. The fact that I can be so damn angry and listen to Remo Drive and feel it all kind of melt away.

Sure the lyrics could be as childish as, "You make me want to start smoking cigarettes so I die slowly," in the song "Yer Killin' Me"but it's the passion and lovingly slow happy drawl that the Erik utters out the lyrics with that makes the song great to listen to. It is the passion that you can hear from him, the feeling that he does indeed love his job and his band. Stephen's skills with the guitar are great! The man is able to make anyone dance with his melodies and his skill at making me feel nostalgic.

Songs like "Yer Killin' Me"or "Hunting for Sport" start out so powerfully with chords blasting and drums banging and then ends so soothingly. It is this contradictory style of music that draws so much respect from me. Usually, popular overrated singers like Lady Gaga or Rihanna try to attempt this style of music, the contradictory style of powerful beginnings, and slow soothing endings. Yet they always kind of fail, in my honest opinion. But Remo Drive and bands just like them who accomplish it in a beautiful way gain my respect. Erik can go from screaming about how he wants to be left alone to just softly intonating so quickly and smoothly that it's not even funny.

I'll be honest with you. I find the childish lyrics relatable. I find Stephen's guitar to be nostalgic and satisfying. And I find that the drums always keep me, a man with no tempo, in the beat. Sure, Remo Drive only has one album, but even a guy like me who is an amateur at writing about music can figure out that the band will have more albums coming out. And I know that they'll all make me happy. It's the passion that each member has, and it's the simple lyrics that anyone can memorize that makes me convinced that even people who hate punk can listen to Remo Drive and be happy. To put it simply, Remo Drive is the perfect band to play for a summer party. They're the fun and angry type of people that can drive anyone to get drunk and dancing in seconds.

That is why I'm going to put the link to their Spotify within this article. I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to writing about music so maybe it would just be better for you, the reader to listen and decide for yourselves. My recommendations would be "Strawberita" and "Yer Killin' Me."But really the whole album is good!

They have only two things to listen to. Their album, Greatest Hitsand their session with AudioTree. Yet they have much more music on their Bandcamp page. Which I'll also list below.

Please support them. They really deserve it!