Plow United

Marching Band

After a 14-year hiatus, Plow United are back. Though, we won’t kick you out of bed for not knowing much about them. Despite handfuls of national touring back in the day, the Wilmington, Delaware-based band was definitely most popular closer to home. Unless you were ensconced in the Delaware/Pennsylvania/Maryland corridor’s ’90s punk scene, and/or used to scour mailorder small print for your music purchases, chances are likely this trio are unfamiliar to you. One of the band’s hallmarks, in addition to their energetic brand being informed equally by folksy arrangements as well as the Lookout!/Fat Wreck Chords sound, was their caution and restraint. Yes, they toured and released three well-received full-lengths. But they also played within their own limits and stayed true to themselves. In fact, what originally broke them up in 1998 was their desire to not be music careerists when major labels came sniffing around after 1996’s Goodnight Sellout. A decade-and-a-half later and the original threesome of Brian McGee, Sean Rule and Joel Tannenbaum are back to channel their life experiences into Plow United, Mk.II.

Unsurprisingly, Marching Band’s approach remains faithful to the sound of ’90s; both the band’s previous works as well as musical kin such as Good Riddance, the Bouncing Souls, Useless ID and Lagwagon. The difference is that Plow United both exploit and are hindered by their single-guitar attack. Their use of conventional chord progressions as opposed to excessive stacked power chords and guitar duels (a la Strung Out) has them coming across as looser, almost sloppier, than their cohort. The furious six-string slinging, quicker tempos and raspy raw vocal delivery of “Cui Bono?” and “Act Like It” hearken back to their early years, while acting as direct foil to the Billy Bragg-ish moments like “The Beginning Of The End Of The World.” The album’s crowning achievement, however, is the oscillating mood of “Meggers” is as it ties the frenetic and rustic together in one epic punk-rock moment.

Jump Start http://www.jumpstartrecords.com

“Cui Bono?”