I like punk. I grew up on '90s hardcore and eventually worked backwards towards its roots where I found myself enamored with the early generations of pop punk. Somewhere in between these two movements, before the pop gave way to angry, floor-punching moshpits, there was the “golden era,” or at least in my opinion. With the ability to mix the anger with a structured sensibility that could entice both purists and pop-enthusiasts, bands like Minor Threat, X, Dead Kennedys, Descendents fueled my teenage angst with songs I could actually sing along to. Maybe that's why a band like Yi is easy to listen to on repeat. It's not that they remind me of any specific band, but I sure like funnelling my passive-aggression through a good ol' sing-a-long.
Hailing from Oakland, one would expect Yi to employ a heavy dose of lo-fi fuzz, but in the case of their most recent full-length, Crying, it harkens back to poorly-recorded basement demos instead of looped psych-tape-gaze. To use a better analogy: when cassettes were the leading-form of technologically sharing punk music. But enough of me waxing poetic about why I like a band like Yi, you should just stream it yourself. And remember, keep your fists in the air and pick up the kids when they fall.
Crying is also available on Vinyl.
