The Hi Fi Ninja - Take It To The Grave

Tracklist:-

1. Blood On The Interstate

2. Crawl

3. Dear Me

4. Hole In The Chest

5. Hubris

6. Take It To The Grave

7. Too Weak To Fight It

A while ago now, I reviewed a 7" by US punk band Teenage Rehab. The link here is that The Hi Fi Ninja comes from the same town, Paducah (Kentucky) and they've shared a few stages as well. They wrote to me to let me know about their latest record, which was released in December just gone. They started playing together in 207 and this is their third album. I've not featured enough punk on here recently or listened to that much either. Let's hope this prods me into buying a new MRR subscription!

The piano melody at the start of Blood On The Interstate sounds really familiar, but I can’t think of where from! Anyway, Hi Fi Ninja play raw and low-fi punk, with plenty of rock and stoner influence. Crawl is the kind of madcap, off-kilter punk I was expecting to here. The vocals are delivered in a loud but clean way and it’s fast. The bluesy nature of their sound is one again present on Dear Me. The more you hear it the more you think of old-school punk line early Bad Religion. You know the kind that used to appear on Tony Hawk’s Playstation game soundtracks! Hi Fi Ninja seem to get crazier as they settle into Take It To The Grave. Hole In The Chest goes for it, but I would have liked the instruments to have been a bit more up front as they sometimes get drowned out by the vocals, but that’s a minor quibble. Pogo-inducing Hubris starts with a great rhythm and it’s shorter length gives it more vibrancy. That vibrancy carries on into the title-track and Hi Fi Ninja waste no time in ripping through the song. Album closer Too Weak To Fight It is the kind of catchy and melodic number you’d expect to round of an album like this. Talking of endings, Take It To The Grave is over far too quickly. I was really getting into it! This is punk rock as it should be. 

You can stream and download Take It To The Grave below, along with their rest of their discography:-

The Hi Fi Ninja Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thehifininja