By Deaglan Howlett | Posted Tuesday, December 26, 2017
For fans of: Green Day, The Bouncing Souls, Frank Turner
The Carousers are a three-piece punk band hailing from Long Branch, New Jersey. The group is made up of Joey Affatato on vocals and guitar, Cassidy Crosby on bass and vocals, and Andy Jackle on drums. The three-piece takes influences from Weezer, Green Day and the Foo Fighters, yet they still retain that unique “Jersey” sound. The Carousers’ first effort is a self-titled EP that was released October 6th.
I was truly shocked that this was the group’s first release as “The Carousers.” The EP is polished and sounds like they had been playing together for years. The Carousers produced this release with help from Sean Glonek. The record was recorded in Hamilton Square, New Jersey at SRG studios. Glonek also engineered, mixed and mastered this release. Clearly, he knew what the group was going for because the production on this release is absolutely perfect and really encapsulates The Carousers’ live set.
The Carousers packed five, high energy songs into this short EP. The whole release clocks in just over ten minutes. In this short amount of time, there are songs of heartbreak, betrayal and moving on. Affatato manages to write songs with sad lyrical content but presents them as sing-alongs. His topics are familiar, lending a somewhat personal experience when listening to these songs. The melodies are catchy and the instrumentation is simple, providing room for the lyrics to really shine.
When I asked Affatato what they were going for with this release, he told me,
“The majority of these songs were written while I lived at my college house in Long Branch. I would just sit on my bed strumming an acoustic guitar, trying to write dumb punk songs that people could sing and dance to. It’s pretty crazy to see what they [the songs] became and how each of us brought that creative spark to the record. We’re really proud of it and hope you’ll give it a listen!”
My personal favorite on this release is “Cracked Pot.” The song borrows the Ramones “four chord” rule and is as straightforward as it gets. However, while the instrumentation may be simple, Affatato and Crosby’s harmonies on the chorus are seriously beautiful. Who said punk can’t be beautiful? The harmonies throughout the release are fantastic, but this track really does it for me.
This is The Carousers’ first release, and I seriously cannot wait to hear what else they have in store. Buy the record here and get to one of their shows!