Shitty Life
Limits to Growth (11 PM Records)
by Scott Deckman
Shitty Life’s new EP, Limits to Growth, is just over 10 minutes long, but that’s all they need. A lethal slice of old school hardcore/emo (think Minor Threat, the Exploder, Maximillian Colby), these Italians mean it. When their singer, whoever he is, screams, it hurts us as much as him. He sounds like Rick Froberg. Fast, faster and more primal than John Lennon ever got in therapy, this shit really does hurt. He’s singing in English, but what he’s saying can’t be easily ascertained. The band calls themselves “chitarrino power punk.” For the uninitiated, the chitarrino is a small, guitar-like instrument (which I don’t think is used on the EP, but don’t quote me). Cathartic, brutal and a bit sparse instrumentally, I can’t listen to Shitty Life every day. If you can, seek help.
At 1:44, fifth track “In the Corner” is a veritable “Stairway to Heaven” compared to some of these burners, and it may show a Ramones Road to Ruin influence (I’ve heard that damn hook somewhere; it frustratingly escapes me and it’s not the brudders, maybe some post-punk tune). The instrumental serves as the calm in the eye of the storm. If you’re familiar with Road to Ruin, you see how far I stretched the word “calm.” The rest of this EP wants someone, something, dead or changed. Now.
If you sport a plain white T, scuffed-up Doc Martens and have a Misfits skull tattooed on your arm, you’ve just found your band.
