These guys are several heaping slices of great. The general sound is up-tempo, melodic punk with big choruses one has the urge to sing along to even when they don’t know the actual words (which would probably result in enthusiastic mouthing along if one saw them live). The singer has one of those great low voices that sound pretty fuckin’ forceful and epic, like Shawn Stern from Youth Brigade. In fact, Time to Panic and Awake sound like the great, lost, follow-up albums that Youth Brigade never really got around to making, albeit with a Chicago rather than California slant. These albums are actually re-releases, but the provenance gets a little complicated. Awake was Shot Baker’s first proper full length and was originally released a few years ago with their first demo Time to Panic tacked on (for a demo, it’s actually a really good release on its own, instead of just sounding like rough sketches of future songs). Unhappy with the original release of Awake, the band rerecorded the album, included a new song, and separated Time to Panic. Whoa, kinda like how Youth Brigade did the same thing twenty-five years earlier with their Sound and Fury album. Déjà vu! Anyway, check this shit out, for this music makes me happy.
–Adrian (Underground Communiqué)