Honeys

Pissed Jeans are a Sub Pop band in the classic sense. Probably not since Tad was making sweet sweaty noise in the early ’90s has there been a band so in line with what label founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman originally had in mind. Honeys is a simpler record by Pissed Jeans standards—songs are shorter, but are still loaded with caveman guitars and drums, and lyrics that point directly to vocalist Matt Korvette’s perma-smirk. The Pennsylvania four-piece rages against the machine—not so much with an angry “fuck you,” but more of an incredulous “what the fuck?” It’s more about those everyday annoyances that make us mumble under our breath or talk back to the television. Songs like “Teenage Adult” and “Health Plan” pretty much sum things up. “Try to turn my head, rub my back and find some cancer,” Korvette screams on the latter, “Yeah, I’m not crazy; I know how you operate.” “Cafeteria Food” is the dirge of these gutter dwellers—slow, sinister and even … funny? You’ll get that a lot with Honeys. Korvette is a screwball who can also come off like a sad old shithead. What he has to say is only funny because it’s true.