Record Review: Poverty Porn, ‘Pop Violence’

Spoiler: It’s no frills, old-timey punk shit (and that’s a good thing)

“The Class is Pain 101,” Elias Kotteas quipped, as Casey Jones, in 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

And, in the case of their new EP, Pop Violence, Poverty Porn (FKA: Deadbeats) are your instructors, and it’s already mid-terms. Clocking in at just over 15 minutes, the PP crew wastes no time, pull no punches and mince not one god-damn word. Aaah…content warning? If you want to feel like there’s any hope at all for this beleaguered, flaming mudball planet, or if you want to feel like people are basically good, then Pop Violence isn’t your album and Poverty Porn isn’t your band.

With that said, though, they just might be if you’ve had a bad day at your menial job and a corruptly and poorly managed university in your over-idyllicized mountain town, and headlines of racist politicians’ continued breathing are making you feel like throwing a few right hooks. Yes, well, in that case, consider Poverty Porn, consider Pop Violence.

Nothing on the Missoula three-piece’s second EP is a reinvented wheel; it’s no frills, old-timey punk shit. And, as punk rock continues to microfragment itself, it’s increasingly rare to talk about it without some qualifier…crust-, pop-, skate-, folk-, art- and so on, ad nauseum. Not so with Poverty Porn, who have been billing themselves, tongues in cheeks, as “Missoula’s Worst Bluegrass Band” for a little over three years. They might actually be Missoula’s best bluegrass band, because they don’t play bluegrass.

Pop Violence was recorded and mixed quickly, giving it a distinctly low-fi feel, which is spot-on. While lead vocalist/guitarist, Kyle Davenport’s lyrical content on several songs may bypass some listeners’ ears (long-standing in-jokes about Missoula’s most infamous crust punk and his exhibitionist tendencies on “Mid 20’s Punk Rock Asshole,” or references to “eeling” the worst thing to come out of Billings on “VIP Tickets”) some of it will sound all too familiar to all too many of us (blacking out and alienating friends on “Late Date” or wanting to burn the worst elements of Trump’s America to the ground on “Goodnight Alt-Right”).

While their last EP was basically just straight-up punk rock, played fast and furious, um, this one is too! But there are a couple nice little funk-inspired fills by bassist/vocalist, Anthony Lozada, and drummer, Michael English. Also, Davenport and Lozada can be heard yelling “skrrt skrrt!” before a couple songs, which should please Keith Martinez, if no one else.

For my part, I enjoyed the 15 minutes I spent with Poverty Porn. If gritty, outspoken, aggressive punk rock isn’t your thing, then Pop Violence probably won’t be either. But if you’re down with a little of the rough-and-tumble, give it a shot.