Scraping Your Ears

San Francisco based garage punk trio Scraper (formerly Scrapers) has released a self titled six song EP that will add a tense, chaotic edge to your summer soundtrack. The best punk makes the listener want to rip her hair out and scream at the top of her lungs; this anxiety-inducing, noisy, and discordant record easily provides that atmosphere. Scraper takes the simplicity and repetitiveness of traditional punk and gives it a lo-fi, grungy, fuzz filled overhaul and its harsh, abrasive style pairs perfectly with the miserable, too hot weeks to come.

Scraper opens with “Liquid Lips,” a track that sounds like it’s been ripped straight from the 1980s and beaten down to its bare, angry bones, with catchy vocals and unrelentingly driving guitar. This track sets the grating tone for the rest of the record, instantly putting your ears on edge. The song “Electric Hairpiece” highlights the extent of vocalists anguished screaming adding more and more to the tension of the entire record.

This barrage of panicked, dirty sounding punk closes with “Time,” which starts out a bit slower and more calm than the rest of the record, giving the listener a bit of an aural break, but by the time the song is over, Scraper has ended just as intensely as it begun.

If you’re looking for a short, angry punk record to accompany your kvetching about the brutal heat, Scraper is it. In a time when solid, static filled post-punk and hardcore records are harder and harder to find (especially among the releases this year), this EP is the harsh, uncomfortably bright light in the darkness. Fans of Psychic Teens and other noisey lo-fi music that sounds like it was recorded in your basement will love this EP and should expect other great releases from Scraper in the future.