Dame
Dame EP
Charm School Records
July 20, 2017

I opened YouTube with the intent of looking up some cheesy classic rock song to listen to, but the second I saw No Punks in K-Town – a YouTube channel that regularly uploads albums, had uploaded this new Dame EP I let out a bit of a screech and clicked on it immediately.

If you’re not familiar with Dame, they’re a femme five-piece band from Boston, Massachusetts. They blend punk, post-punk and new wave sounds together in their tracks. The Boston scene is pretty much on fire right now and I’m pretty excited about the releases that have come out of that city this year.

This three track self-titled EP has heavy post-punk vibes, just like the band’s previous release did, but the songs seem to have more dimension and more developed synth this time around. Don’t get me wrong, I love Charm School, but this EP definitely shows musical growth.

The first track, ‘Glitch,’ is my favourite on the EP. It feels like the perfect opening track. It gets you interested and makes you want to hear more from the release.

One of the lines repeated through the song, “it hits you hard from all directions, it’s all enough to make you doubt your whole existence,” was the first line to really suck me into the album. I feel like it packed in a lot of emphasis.

The second track, ‘Lines,’ is a new version of a track from their 2016 split with The Cringe. They’ve added more dimension and synth to the track and seem to have changed the pace, making it a more danceable and infectious track overall.

Usually when a band re-records a track I already know and like, I pick the original track over the re-recording, but I actually really like both of these. Dame’s one of the few bands whose recordings I like to listen to all the way through every time I listen to them, instead of jumping around to specific tracks. I think their songs generally have a really nice flow to them and blend together well, so I think I’ll keep listening to both versions.

The third track, ‘Hush’ has a slow, gradual build-up and cuts into the drums and vocals somewhere between the 1.20 and 1.30 mark. Clocking in at five minutes and 11 seconds, this is by far the longest track on the EP. As someone that generally doesn’t like longer songs, it is my least favourite of the three, but that’s not really saying a lot, because I actually really like all three tunes.

Dame self-released a cassette in January 2017, Hush, with both sides playing just the track ‘Hush.’ I’m not sure if they’re the same version we see on the new EP or if they’re different, because I don’t own it and haven’t come across the recordings online. But the cassette is out there somewhere in the ether, incase you hear this EP and decide that ‘Hush’ is your new jam.

If you’re looking for a band with a haunting sound that’ll make you dance, you should definitely run to check out Dame and buy this EP.

-Linsey McFadden