Stiff Love "Trouble" 7"
Side A: Walk In The Dark, Trouble
Side B: Up In Your Room, Like A Dog
Glued jackets with textured covers and matte finish, Stiff Love sticker, new Neck Chop sticker done by Durango 65 and DL code
Nevermind the weird phrasing: Olympia’s Stiff Love is a fuckin’ beautiful instance punk rock incestuation. Like, if there was some kind of omniscient deity responsible for eating grapes, chuckin’ down lightning bolts, and ensuring that certain groups of people got into rooms together and started up bands, they definitely would’ve had to pull some strings to get the stars to align over Washington that fateful day. Sampling members from Lysol, Lowest Priority, Beta Boys, Very Mental and The Vitamens -- the first three of which are Washington-based, and all four phenomenal punk acts of their own distinct, varying flavors --, Stiff Love is the aftershock following years of rambunctious reverberations spawned by their past musical efforts. Liberating themselves from the arbitrary limitations of straight-forward punk, Stiff Love has channeled decades’ worth of vintage garage rock into a shameless, glittery stint of glam-like moxie, complete with a presentation worthy of posters plastered all over a bedroom wall. This four-piece has curated a sound that’s distinctly their own, emanating sheer confidence and gusto through heavy-handed, toe-tap-inducing rhythms, spring-loaded guitar licks reminiscent of surf-esque sensibilities, crunchy, scuzzed-out riffage imbued with a metallic potency, and a kickass lead capable of inciting a fuckin’ riot. “Trouble” could not have been a better follow-up to the group’s original debut cassette of 2017, honing their once-coarse tones to an edge fit for a smiley face-embossed switchblade. Stiff Love is the exact type of band you wish you had back when you were in middle school. Because, well, maybe then you wouldn’t have turned out to be such a mess.
