TRANSIT "Stay Home EP" (Run For Cover) Review by Jordan A. Baker
With TRANSIT putting out three releases in barely two years, including a full-length, and this year's Stay Home EP, the band's general sense of urgency underscores the fuel behind their supercharged melodic punk/hardcore. It should be said towards the top of this review that Stay Home's best song is the scorching opener, "Stay Home," which barrels forth with a rumble of double bass and furious guitars that simply explode. TRANSIT fails to match the intensity of "Stay Home" in any of the other five songs on the EP, but that's not to say that the rest of the material is subpar. "Stays The Same," is brilliantly crafty and methodical, tempting a faster pace, but stays mostly mid-tempo, and lets the layered vocals take direction. The tuneful lead vocals of Joe Boyton are TRANSIT's calling-card, but the complimentary gruff trade-offs from guitarists Tim Landers and Joe Lacy pack this band's songs full of tension. TRANSIT's hefty songwriting sense is fleshed out with Jay Maas' low-end recording focus. Each punch of Daniel Frazier's bass-drum, and the steady presence of PJ Jefferson's bass, dulls whatever pop sheen exists, and keeps Stay Home firmly in the punk and hardcore arena, despite its gripping melodies. So much of TRANSIT's existence reminds me of Virginia's FAIRWEATHER right around the release of their debut full-length, If They Move... Kill Them, and for those of us who around to witness that first hand in the beginning of this decade, it's a truly wonderful connection.
