Robbery Club – Loot
Punk rock will never die – and Buffalo four-piece Robbery Club (RC) are here to prove it. Doesn’t it feel like nobody wants to start up a guitar band anymore? Nobody told RC – and while this isn’t their official debut (and they’ve formed from the ashes of previously-beloved act Ghostpool), it’s a much-anticipated continuation of what promises to be a beloved oeuvre. They’re calling this one Loot, a perfectly succinct, five-song drop of songs made to play at unreasonable volumes in a sweat-soaked basement. Top it off with a healthy dose of existential dread and you have yourselves our album of the week.
The EP kicks off with “Bitter Pills,” an adrenaline-soaked blast of fun emo punk energy – what else? Spitfire guitars, punched-up drumming, and gritty bass will be the calling cards throughout this EP – for a batch of punk songs, you don’t need much else. What you can glean from these songs is a true sense of pain, misfortune, and overall ennui, delivered in a trademark sneer from singer Jake Amadori. Lyrics about being too afraid to tell your dad the truth, cleaning up blood, and wasting Friday nights all alone feel so real, if a little morbid. And what’s more, if you needed more evidence that this crew is Buffalo-born, look no further than the references to Nickel City, endless one way streets, and pollution-resistant pin oak trees.
The intro to song two, “Rectifier,” embodies a certain urgency that helps to separate these songs from more conventional punk rock offerings. Stabs of guitar chords are played in a spiky, punctuated fervor before the song smooths out, settling into a more melodic delivery from Amadori that brings to mind Cody-era Joyce Manor or your favorite major-key Alkaline Trio song. Next, song three, “Do You Wanna?,” channels post-In Reverie Saves the Day – with its soaring vocal delivery, the band eschews nuance for more of a straightforward, guitar-driven noise.
As the band smashes their way through the subtle love found on “Chain Linked,” and then into the more contemplative existentialism of “Same Old, Same Old,” the hurt tucked into this otherwise energetic sounding EP really starts to sink in. The meaning in this EP is hidden in the inconspicuous lines – “I’ll get a dog;” “Knowing no one’s laughing anymore;” “if anyone asks it’s just same old, same old.” It’s the acknowledgement of those beige, day-to-day moments – the ones that bleed together into monotony – that really sell the sincerity here.
Loot is out now (February 14th, 2025) via Triple Hammer Records. Engineered and mixed by Jay Zubricky at GCR Audio.
Categorised in: Album of the Week
This post was written by Nick Sessanna