Send "Banner Pilot " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 The title of Banner Pilot’s new record, Heart Beats Pacific, might imply escape, but damned if these Midwest punks don’t owe a lot to their hometown atmosphere on their new record. These guys are a throwback to the early- to mid-‘90s pop-punk—the kind of sound their label, Fat Wreck, helped cultivate—where unabashed layers of power chords and basic yet slicing riffs cut through every song, clear-cutting space for the gruff vocals, here barked out by frontman Nick Johnson. In some ways, this record is exactly what you’d expect from a pop-punk band. But if the approach is not surprising, the results are still awfully strong.The tension in this record rises out of a clash with surroundings. “Been living under frozen sky,” Johnson says to start the record on “Alchemy”. “But we’ve all got ways that we get by,” he continues, and these are the two sides of a coin the record explores. It vacillates between the miasmic sameness of suburban towns and too-familiar cities and the small things people do to make their quotidian life work. Johnson’s lyrics use an awful lot of repetition to drive this point home. That frozen sky, and the snow it yields, is all over this record. Even when “the day is warming up” on “Forty Degrees”, he still notes the lingering drifts of snow. In fact, nearly every song here mentions snow or rain or winter or the grey expanse of the Midwest sky. Under all that weather, we get neon and streets and parking lots, over and over again. While the repetition of imagery may seem, at first listen, to be lazy, it’s actually quite striking in its effect. Rather than constantly trying to circle the square, changing the phrasing around his imagery to keep it fresh, Johnson constantly returns to the same markers, in the same way, and all of a sudden we can feel the city tightening around us like a coil. We remember where we grew up, driving the same streets with the same people in the same cars getting into the same shit....full text |
| Fortheloveofpunk |
| Another solid record from one of the best bands doing the gravely-yet-melodic-punk-rock-thing. It’s musical comfort food. The chops are there, the hooks and choruses are pleasing, and its an overall satisfying meal. As with every Banner Pilot record, it’s easy for the songs to blend together into a nice warm batch of “this is pretty good.” But with most great albums, it takes repeated listens to get to the blood and guts of the record. As the hooks and lyrics sink in, you are painted a poetic picture of the ups and downs of everyday life. The tedium of work, relationship problems, missed connections, drinking as a means of coping, and the brief moments when it all makes sense. It’s all in there somewhere if you pay enough attention. The biggest change in their sound is Nick singing in a lower register like on “Spanish Reds” and “Eraser”, which at times provides a nice contrast to Nick’s normal high and raspy delivery. While initially off-putting, (basically, a what the fuck? who the hell is singing this song?) the vocals eventually blend together nicely, and provide a subtle contrast that was missing in their previous work....full text |
| Bringonmixedreviews |
| It’s been two years since Collapser raised the bar for punk rock, and I’m sure Minneapolis’ Banner Pilot have felt the pressure in creating a worthy follow-up to their sophomore record. It’s hard for me to say that Heart Beats Pacific exceeds those expectations, but this is one hell of a successor. Between extensive touring and making records with their other bands The Gateway District and House Boat, it’s been a busy year for these guys. The new Banner Pilot record reflects the experience they have gained since 2009. As with most of life’s experiences, it has left them more defeated, depressed, and feeling the need to forget it with copious amounts of alcohol. In other words, they’re more inspired than ever. Overall, this record is more poppy than its predecessor; taking their Jawbreaker influenced punk and adding a healthy dose of Screeching Weasel to the mix. This is especially evident in “Alchemy” and “Red Line”, which feature infectious riffs that could’ve come straight from My Brain Hurts. I’m very happy about that, and feel that it makes their new songs even more instantly catchy and appealing to a broader audience. Another interesting, yet very subtle influence is grunge. Certain parts such as the beginning of “Isolani” could easily come from a Mudhoney record, and I find that pretty awesome as well. This variation helps keep the new record interesting and refreshing....full text |
Banner Pilot lyrics
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