photo by Akaer Studio
Having witnessed a couple live sets by the Brooklyn-based three-piece Pamphlets recently there’s one word that comes to mind to describe their songs and their stage presence and that word is “urgency” because here’s a band who instill every note and every syllable with an urgent sense of, well, urgency, that makes you feel like somehow you should be doing something about the desperate state of the world, or the desperate state of your soul, or heck maybe they’re just trying to remind you that you left the oven or the iron on at home. But whatever it is, it’s damn urgent and you better take care of that shit right away.
It’s a general vibe that’s very much in keeping with these urgent times, times equivalent to a dumpster fire being doused with a tanker trunk full of gasoline (expensive gasoline!) and Pamphlets are like the “End Is Nigh” street corner guy who thrusts a pamphlet into your hand where “every ounce of passion is calling for a reaction” and here I’m quoting from Pamphlet’s new single “Somehow” which is put across with a Gang of Four (Gang of Three!) level intensity and urgency by vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Marquez, bassist Ben Griffin, and rhythmatist Daniel Pemberton.
And hey I’m not even gonna try to interpret “Somehow”’s lyrics minus any input from the band because that’s beyond my pay grade but safe to say there’s plenty of intriguing lines about redlining and polished politicians and defiling palms and submissive gods and “taking medicine to ease myself from all of your relevance” which come across equally acerbic and anthemic as underlined by the spiky-as-a-porcupine postpunk sonics guaranteed to get your heart pumping even when they slow things down like on “Flowers.”
So check it all out and then check out Pamphlets live if you’re able to cuz they’re really something in a setting where their livewire energy comes across most directly and luckily you’ve got two chances to do just that in the coming days since the three gents are slated to appear at Bushwick’s Hart Bar on Friday and then out on Rockaway Beach on Saturday as part of the Rock! Away! Summer Fest so get up and boogie down with urgency! (Jason Lee)