Rating: NNN
Listening to this newest signing by Canadian indie punk label Smallman, it sounds like the calendar hanging on the office wall reads 1996. Not that Smallman doesn’t occasionally try (Our Mercury, Small Brown Bike) putting out bands that aren’t soundtracks to a snowboarding video, but considering that the label’s biggest payday is Peg punks Comeback Kid, it knows its bread and butter. Vancouver’s Daggermouth, slightly old-school melodic hardcore, follow Comeback’s formula sans tough-guy hardcore style. Instead, it’s high school poetry-class lyrics that only the most encouraging of teachers could grade highly. Nevertheless, the Daggermouth dudes are young, full of energy and believe in what they do. In that sense they can’t be stopped.
Daggermouth play the Kathedral Saturday (May 5).
