In New Jersey, 17 year old drivers are not allowed to drive between the hours of 12:01 AM and 5 AM. Back in my day, this wasn't an issue; but it was a more reckless, more dangerous time in the mid-80s. If we wanted to stay out late and sit on the beach in West End or drink Dutch coffees at The Inkwell, we didn't really have to worry. Now, though, I imagine that new drivers have to plan their evenings pretty carefully if they want to stay within the law.
A few songs into The So So Glos' Labor Day set at Asbury Lanes last year, a young man near the stage asked frontman Alex Levine how late he thought the set would go. He pointed out that he and his friend still had restricted drivers licenses and couldn't drive past midnight. Levine asked him to get his mom on the phone.
"What's your name?"
"Deaglan."
"OK." Then, Levine said, holding the mic up to the young man's iPhone, "Ma'am, we have to drive back to Brooklyn tonight; so if it gets too late we'll drive Deaglan home."
Satisfied, Deaglan's mom gave the OK and the two were able to enjoy the rest of the show. That was my first experience with Corrina, Corrina.
Corrina, Corrina are the Red Bank quartet of Deaglan Howlett, Brian McKenna, Matthew Kessig, and Mike O'Connor. Earlier this month, the band released American Short Stories on Asbury Park's Little Dickman Records. The LP is an 11-song collection of surprisingly tight, surprisingly mature songs that fit right in with the venerable New Jersey pop punk tradition.
"Sea Song" opens the record and draws heavily on the expansive, punk-influenced rock of a band like The Gaslight Anthem. The chunky, bouncing power chords conjure images of kids jumping like crazy along with the music; while some really interesting lead guitar lines add ornamentation. Lyrics like, "I didn't wanna be a disappointment to my parents" -- and even a quick Dutch coffee reference -- will hit home for anyone who spent their formative years in a suburban enclave, especially the Jersey Shore.
The first third or so of the record stays in anthemic, alt-rock territory with "The Art of Racing" and the lead guitar driven one-two punch of "This One's For You, Charlie" and "2.5 Minute Drive." Things then change up a bit and go a little more traditionally pop punk, starting with the brief, bouncy "Stick."
The pair of tracks that follows dispenses with most of the riffage and sticks to pounding out punk rock chords. Album standout "Denim Jacket" describes a miserably failed attempt to locate the "cure for being lame," while "Fear of Missing Out" is a mosh-worthy critique of conformity.
The album closes with the lo-fi, acoustic title track. Like "National Anthem" on The Gaslight Anthem's Handwritten, it's a bit of a jarring shift from the tone of the rest of the record; but it's not a bad send-off after all of the high adrenaline.
I think, though I'm not sure, that the guys in Corrina, Corrina can all drive past midnight now. If you didn't know anything else about them, though, the songwriting and musicianship on American Short Stories would make you think that they've been old enough to go out driving that late for years by now.
American Short Stories is out now on Little Dickman Records. You can catch Corrina, Corrina live when they celebrate the record's release at The Saint with an (appropriately) all-ages matinee show featuring friends Hot Blood, Have a Good Season, and Loser Year on May 10th.
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