Wavepig prove that those ‘punk’s not dead’ badges you used to see around Whanganui in the ’80s were right. The heavy guitar riffs keep one foot on Mount Rock-more, but the vocal delivery comes straight from the heartland of DIY punk-ville. The chanting at the start of Ocean reminds me of balmy days spent in student dives listening to the Tall Dwarfs. The song quickly shifts gear after that, careering into pop-punk territory and causing mayhem like a Blues Brothers’ car chase. Wavepig stand defiantly on the punk side of the pop-punk spectrum, and so sometimes the vocals aren’t quite as polished as you’d hear on a compilation like ‘Now That’s Not Exactly What I’d Call Music, Vol.53’. Still, the songs are highly listenable. Tracks like No More Government give you flashbacks to a ‘Punk And Disorderly’ compilation. There are some great bass lines perpetrated, like an updated version of Mike Watt’s work with the Minutemen, mixed with the busy-ness of punkabilly. The guitar playing and drumming are also tight as and there’s some tasty ‘ripping-velcro’ fuzz on the track 3641. Even some native birdsong, and a section in Te Reo – a song about harakeke (Flax). It’s so good to find the language in a different context, not just in email signatures at work. Great stuff.