Tuesday 4/6: Pinkshift—"Mars"
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Baltimore pop-punk band Pinkshift.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him), Eric Bennett (they/them), Michael Brooks (he/him) and Miranda Reinert (she/her). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. On Substack, we’re also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc. Three days of the week are free but you can get access to all five weekly posts by subscribing for $5/month via Substack or $2/month via our Patreon.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Baltimore pop-punk band Pinkshift.
Pinkshift—"Mars"
Eric Bennett:
Pinkshift has improved on an already winning formula with “Mars.” The band had already won me over with “I'm gonna tell my therapist on you.,” a slice of pop-punk perfection. That song, like this new one, features adramatic, pleading delivery from the group's vocalist Ashrita Kumar. It often sounds like she’s dragging you to hell. “Mars” is bombastic, fiery, and sounds worthy of its name. It's combative enough to be about the god of war and desolate enough to be about the red planet. It might be clear which they’re referring to, but this is the rare case that lyrics don’t matter as much to me, I only hear the complete work and all the bands that inspired it.
Eli Enis:
Almost two years ago on the podcast, Eric and I reviewed an album by a band called Ramonda Hammer who were making a style of muscular, brooding pop-punk that called back to Evanescence and even Linkin Park. I took it as a sign that the wave of early-mid-aughts pop-punk nostalgia was rolling in, and Pinkshift are one of many bands who’ve solidified that assumption. I also think they’re the best in this current cluster. Not only is Ashrita Kumar a fiery vocalist with a windstorm delivery that could fill a room, but he bandmates are incredibly fucking tight musicians.
There are some phenomenal shred sections and whirring riffs on their debut EP Saccharine that remind me of PUP’s technical take on pop-punk, or better yet My Chemical Romance. However, none of that virtuosity ever interferes with the emotional heft of these songs, which can be a tough balance to strike.“Mars” is the the new one from this batch of singles-turned-EP, and I just love the weightiness of the riffs and how hard it swings when that chorus kicks in. I think this band has an obvious career ahead of them and I can’t wait to see what they do next.