The self-titled tape from Vancouver’s B-Lines is a re-release of the much-liked LP put out by Nominal and Deranged. On it, B-Lines play a nervy mash of hardcore and pop punk: nine tracks in eleven minutes, all threatening to shake apart from jittery rhythms and shout-yelped delivery of lines about wearing “Sunglasses when I’m all alone / Sunglasses when I’m on the phone.” Songs like “Hastings Strut” and “PsychedelicHigh School” are wild and hooked and would fit on any mix. Tonally, you’d think B-Lines rented the Angry Samoans equipment with the promise that they’d only write songs spikier and stranger than those of 1978. But now it’s 2014. It’s time to save on tapes. Order one for your uncle who likes “proto-punk,” one for your step-pep who whistles Red Kross, another for your grand-pep, a car copy the whole family! Or maybe just one for you and your dog.
–Jim Joyce (Shake!)