It’s quite riveting to consider how a small band from the suburbs of Orange County can come crawling out into the music world with such a pounding and electrifying force that feels quick as lightning with their debut record. But, proving they’re nothing of the word small, Junkmail has effortlessly served us a new order of emo-alternative rock with their new record My World On Fire, which dropped in February, and we’re ready to burn with the heat it serves.
Junkmail is a four-piece from Orange County that has only been together since 2018 but somehow has managed to rise within the OC music community with a pace that can only be deemed as swift. Known for their unique twist on alternative-rock tones but still allusive of emo-punk with a complete package of teenage angst, they’re reminiscent of groups such as Blink-182 or even Weezer. It’s safe to say Junkmail is climbing that same ladder of alt-rock triumph.
The first track “My World On Fire” kicks off with a booming bass line that generates the entire identity of the record—fast and exhilarating. The same tempo is found within the next two tracks “Utah” and “Rains It Pours”. Although the tempo is upbeat for these next two songs, the use of melancholic lyricism makes it entirely personal. Moving into the climax of the record with “Parking Lot,” it transports into another world of personal dread as the rhythm starts to slow down as singer Jake Quintanar shouts, “Always talking trash on the local scene, but they’re living a lie till the day that they die.” It displays a more meaningful outlook on their view of the people around them, the city they live in and most importantly, their world.
As the next songs direct right back to the fast cadence that the record originally starts out with, “Come Back To Me” and “Out Of Her Head” are sounds you somehow can’t shake out of your head as it feels like a recall of garage-punk from the early 2000s. The record starts to trickle down to the finishing point with “Blazing Sun”—with tight little clusters of twinkly notes around the guitar progressions, it perfectly balances out the flickering, back-and-forth vocal line. It leaves us with a minute of solitude as the guitar and drums are left with clashing punk riffs and drum fills. It’s as if Junkmail wanted to end it off the same way it started—making us get the hell up and mosh.
Junkmail is set to play MLM Fest on Saturday, March 14th at the Fox Theatre and a few other shows such as March 15th at Malone’s and Kochella 2020 in Huntington Beach on March 28th. You can now listen to Junkmail’s newest record “My World On Fire” here:
