Chixdiggit - Safeways Here We Come EP Review

Who?

Hailing from Calgary, Chixdiggit! has been making music for 20 years and this is their newest material since 2005. Basically, they’re a light hearted pop-punk band that writes songs that are just as goofy as their name. Chupacabras, J.Crew and toilet seats are just some of the many random topics they’ve tackled over the years.

How is it?

Typical Chixdiggit! Not that it’s a bad thing, but this is the sort of EP you’d expect the band to make. It totally sounds like they picked up right where Pink Razors left off and the opening track “Miso Ramen” is a perfect example of this. It has the crunchy power chords and infectious chorus that will get stuck in your head, right before launching into a simple, but rocking, guitar solo. And perhaps the most defining part is still K.J. Jansen’s vocals. Plenty of people might find them a little grating, but they sound as good as ever and no one sings quite like he does.

“I Hope Things Will Turn Around” is as serious as the band gets, with Jansen offering some heartfelt lines throughout the tune. “I Hate Basketball” is pretty self explanatory and most bands couldn't pull off a song like this, but Chixdiggit! make it work. Just like “Hot n Horney,” which is short and sweet at only 44 seconds. If you want to relax and mindlessly sing along with some super fun pop-punk tunes, Safeways Here We Come has got you covered. Just don’t expect anything more....full text It’s no secret to the underground that late-’90s-style pop-punk has really come back into vogue over the past few years. However, the exhumation of short, sad, silly songs about girls came at a time when Auto-Tuning vocals and quantizing drums was the norm in pop world. The result is a slew of albums that have a sterile sheen over the raw fun and emotion that made this music break into the mainstream in the first place.

Enter Chixdiggit!. The under-appreciated Canadian pop-punkers seem to have risen from a long period of dormancy to teach the new school what it’s all about: short, sad, silly songs about girls from the heart, not the brain. Clocking in under 17 minutes, there isn’t an ounce of filler on this fantastic EP. Singer KJ Jansen joyously belts out a torrent of catchy melodies over a rhythm section that harkens back to later Descendents, and instead of sounding like studio magic, it feels like a band that have actually learned how to play together and enjoy it.

While there isn’t an enormous spectrum musically or lyrically, the record moves fast enough that it never gets stale. Where a lesser band would sound stupid playing a song titled “Hot N Horny” (“I’m hot and horny in Calgary/And I’m ready to fuck tonight/Ready to fuck tonight/Ready to fuck tonight”) Chixdiggit! pull off the fun vibe so well that even the most jaded ex-punkers would have to smile. With Safeways Here We Come, Chixdiggit! have released a record akin to Superchunk’s Majesty Shredding; a band who never quite broke up seemingly come back from the dead with not only some of their strongest material to date, but also some of the strongest that the genre has seen....full text