Ian MacKaye once described Washington DC as a petri dish for great ideas where you can always grow something because nobody is looking. This petri dish was the birthplace of hardcore punk and subsequently provided a space for it to mutate into post-hardcore. Dear Spring represents a continuation of this tradition with what they describe as post-pop-punk.
On their new EP Moments, Dear Spring present us with a variation on Wonder Years style pop punk that has a direct and clear lineage to acts like Fugazi. The drums shift smoothly between groovy drum fills and anthemic hooky breakdowns, tinges of emo and math rock seep throughout the guitar tracks, the lyrics are poetic and raw, and even in the quietest moments the energy is never ending.
Moments is an aptly named album as it exhibits the here and the now in terms of a new evolutionary step for the pop-punk genre. The DC punk scene has always been a place of growth and innovation and bands that are often overlooked on a national scale later on become rediscovered as “lost gems” of their times. I highly recommend you catch Dear Spring while they are here and fresh
Moments is out via Open Your Ears Records on June 3rd
