loud paper

Pinhead Gunpowder
Shoot the Moon
Adeline Records

Pinhead Gunpowder lyricist/drummer/cover artist Aaron Cometbus is well known in ’zinedom for his super-caffinated writings in Cometbus. He’s well known in punkdom for his stints in bands such as Sweet Baby and the immortal Crimpshrine. Taken as a whole, Cometbus’ lyrics and writings about his wandering lifestyle and the simple joys in life’s minutiae show why he just might be the closest thing to Walt Whitman that america has seen in the last 100 years.

The songs on this EP are the sort of amphetamined buzz pop that are as quintessentially Berkeley as bungalows, polar fleece in July and Telegraph Ave.’s own Mediterraneum Caffe. The band is a part-time project consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong, Jason White, Aaron Cometbus and Bill Schneider from other local acts, but when they get together as jubilant and infectious. This seven song EP is short, but the songs will stay with you for days. Cometbus and guitarist White write lyrics that detail growing old, unrequited love, diving onto hedges, staying up late and going for long walks.

My favorite lyric is "someone stole my anger/Someone stole my girl and left me with a cold shoulder/ Sluggo said, How can someone steal from you/ Something that you never owned?/ I said, yeah, It’s a damn good trick" Lyrics like these make it the kind of record to play all night when you are talking with your friends over bottled beer. And it is an even better record to keep playing as the sun comes up.