There are a plethora of tasks that you can complete in fifteen minutes: run a mile, make breakfast, buy a sweater, even get insured with GEICO. But, you know what else you can do? You guessed it: listen to one of the best new releases of 2019. Hailing from New Jersey, the Daddies are fresh on the indie scene with their four-song self-titled debut EP. Daddy Adam, Daddy Xander, Daddy James, Daddy Mike, and Daddy Serge are reinvigorating guitar music as we know it by creating “rock ‘n roll that’s good for your soul”. Give the lively Daddies EP even just one listen and you’ll see that they’re doing a pretty damn good job at living up to this motto.

Animated. Buoyant. Frisky. Peppy. Bustling. There truly aren’t enough words in the English language to capture just how much raw energy the Daddies put into this EP. Every member of the five-piece is relentlessly going at full tilt from the distorted intro on the opening “She Sings” to the onslaught at the end of the closing “Goodbye”. Accordingly, all the songs are purely infectious. Without fail, I always find myself instinctively bobbing my head and singing along to the music, often for hours after I finished listening. The memorable chorus to “She Sings” always gets stuck in my head, but in the best way possible. Moreover, the energy makes the entire listening experience invigorating. Jamming to “Heart” has become a staple to my early morning routine, with the spirited rhythms serving as a better pick-me-up than any cold shower or cup of Joe.

Lyrically, the Daddies put forth nothing tremendously groundbreaking or insightful. There are no social commentaries, no political rants, not even a deeply romantic piece. That being said, in an age where literally everything has to be a metaphor, it is simply refreshing to have songs with no “higher meaning”. Like the great rock songs of yesteryear, the catchy hooks and simple lyrics throughout Daddies serve no discernible purpose other than to make you get up and shake your ass, and this is precisely what makes the Daddies such a welcome anomaly. 

The Daddies have decimated the typical barriers to entry to create hard rock accessible to the masses.

In terms of genre, they fall somewhere in between garage rock and punk, two genres that I would rarely describe as “danceable” (and no, pogo-dancing does not count). Yet, it is impossible to listen to any song on the EP and not groove with it. Even though the guitar riffs are rough and fast and the vocals reach a near-shouting pitch, at no point do they sound abrasive like typical garage-punk. As such, the Daddies have decimated the typical barriers to entry to create hard rock accessible to the masses. Daddies goes beyond mere genre-bending to create something truly revolutionary, and I can’t wait to see what’s next in store from these five New Jersey punks.

Writer: Zack Holden