Album Review: The Mendozaz – Up And At Them

  • Mark Cartwright posted
  • Reviews

The Mendozaz

Up And At Them - Self Released

How do they do it?  Canadian punk bands I mean, here we have The Mendozaz, formed back in 2017 and they didn’t just decide to play the pop punk that is so synonymous with the not American area of North America, but they play it better than many other bands, well almost a few exceptions might be the likes of Green Day and NOFX, yes I can put these up there!

A word of warning before you hit play on the latest album, be prepared to be tapping the foot, nodding the head and shamelessly grinning from ear to ear.  If you are a fan of pop punk, and yes that includes myself, these guys hit every single button square on when it comes to doing this kind of music in the way it should be done, but what they also do is, they do it in a way that is not simply copying, its reimagining and moving the genre forward too.

‘Sitting By The Rocks’ has the unenviable task of kicking off the album, and to use a cliche, it hits the ground running, pure unadulterated rock/pop/punk with a sound that sets the album on track with a bang, Jonny Mendoza’s vocal is one that simply rises to the top and singles him out as having a voice you will never confuse with any other.  Not only do you get the melodic vocal that fits perfectly in ‘GTFO’ for example, but in ‘Murder’, which by the way is the stand out track for the album in my opinion, what you also get is an edgy no to be messed with angsty Jonny.

Musically this band have everything pinned down so tightly, you would be hard pushed to find a super glue that bonds so well.

Given that this is unashamedly pop punk, you are still not reaching for the sick bucket, no sickly sweetness of the likes that came with some of the commercially driven copy cat bands that swept the charts in the 90’s. No this band, are full of punk, punk that has something to say too, whether it be in the  form of ‘Not So Nice’ a dark, do you think you really know me song, or with the “fucking’s what I do, so fuck you too” of ‘FCB’, The Mendozaz are not that superficial shit!

Thirteen tracks in all, and not a bad one in sight!  Well just my opinion, although I did try to find one, honest, hate it when something is this good, it can’t be perfect, can it?  To this end I picked out ‘Lasso Of Truth’ simply because it didn’t seem to fit, with its hardcore vocal, heavy overtones and well just outright difference to all that came before in this album, but no! They can even do this well (doesn’t it make ya sick), in fact ‘Kill Your Television’ also smacks your ears around as if they were just punch bags, then to finish with ‘Truckin’ n Fuckin’ the last three are a whole other band surely?

Back to my first line, How do they do it?  With ease and with balls is the answer.

Released early 2021, you can stream and download HERE when it arrives

Find the bands website HERE

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