Los Angeles-based punk band Get Out recently released their defiant new album, The Violation of Terms and Conditions, comprising 17 tracks.
Explaining the title, the band says, “When we released our last album ‘We Were Here First’ in 2019, it was taken off Apple Music after one week because Apple claimed our album art ‘violated the terms and conditions.’ After we changed the artwork and resubmitted, Apple Music listed it as Metal (it is not) and placed it under a different artist of the same name (we’ve had this name since 1994). We have tried to contact our distributor as well as Apple music so many times and no one will respond to us about it. The first song written for the album ‘Rotten Apple’ is a criticism of a corrupt corporation that only cares about the elite. Other tracks were inspired by the pandemic of 2020 as well as the state of affairs in our country and society.”
Made up of Ian Robbins (lead vocals, guitar), Luis Castro (vocals, guitar), Angel Vera (vocals, bass), and Chris Rios (drums), the album was produced by Robbins, Amador Solis, and Tim Moore.
Get Out first got together during the mid-‘90s, followed by releasing their self-titled album, which was followed by a series of albums, culminating with 2012’s Thank You and Good Night. At this point, Get Out adjourned. After a Biblical interval of seven years, Get Out got back together and dropped We Were Here First.
Tracing the evolution of Get Out’s musical output reveals the band growing from a raw, experimental type of skate punk, with a tendency to shift into funky rhythms to a full-bore pop-punk sound embellished by ample vocal harmonies.
Highlights on The Violation of Terms and Conditions include “Florida Man,” conjuring up suggestions of The Offspring, only with more stylish, melodic vocals. Dirty, pummeling guitars give the tune hefty, growling washes riding straight-forward percussion.
“The Right is Wrong” rolls out on darker colors, deep and barking, with gleaming accents atop a propelling rhythmic flow. Backing harmonies range from radiant and melodic to gang-like urgency.
“Rotten Apple” ebbs and rises from gentle, glittering softness to galvanizing layers of snarling guitars and cutting lyrics. A personal favorite because of its contagious surfaces of pop-punk, “Outside” travels on platinum, almost jangly, guitars, while Robbins’ angst-laced voice imbues the lyrics with delicious susceptibility.
Vaguely reminiscent of The Offspring, “It’s Not Easy Minnie Green” thrums with tight, edgy guitars pushing out waves of angular tones. Perhaps the best track on the album, “The End of Florida” features rumbling drums, pulsing guitars, and complex vocal harmonies.
On the whole, The Violation of Terms and Conditions is excellent, brimming with electrifying pop-punk energy and compelling momentum.
