In the most epic act of defiance, when the pandemic forced San Pedro, Calif.’s Kid Kevin and Danny Lou to put a pause on their usual punk-as-fuck antics, they doubled down in the CDC-sanctioned safety of their home. Form a band, shotgun a beer, write the song, shotgun a beer, record it in Kevin’s bedroom, shotgun a beer, film a video full of—yep, you guessed it—shotgunning beers. And then straight to Instagram for all their friends’ enjoyment. The tracks had to be under a minute to conform with Instagram’s posting guidelines. Stoner Cop is an absolutely inspiring and beautiful testament to DIY being the ultimate pathway to a headspace of endless possibilities. Years and years of learning skills and picking up gear/equipment, prepping for a day when you had to run the infrastructure of an entire scene from your house. And not only expressing yourself for your own sanity in incredibly claustrophobic and precarious times, but creating something that was fun and could give comfort to friends all around the world. From its impetus Stoner Cop is very “first four hours” speedy, snarly punk tackling a specific issue that was literally going down that day. It makes you smile with a clenched jaw. And then Stoner Cop got stoned and unleashed some very chill dub. This LP serves as a helpful reminder of the time’s complicated and turbulent moments. The squares would argue that the Stoner Cop crew spent quarantine acting like raving lunatics in a shotgun-induced delirium, but looking at the scope of human actions that transpired, I feel nothing but pride for what they produced in a stretch of time when every minuscule task was absolutely dreadful and terrifying. Stab, twist, crack, and order this LP now. It’s limited to two hundred copies. –Daryl (Calimucho)