Hare Krishna hardcore? Screamo? Whatever-the-fuck-genre-Flogging-Molly-plays? There's no denying it: Punk rock has gone through some seriously bizarre permutations.
And in keeping with the big-tent genre's proclivity toward making bedfellows of once-disparate sub-scenes (like suburban US skate-punk and Jamaican ska), Little Haiti's favorite holy house of wax and vegan cupcakes, Sweat Records, will be hosting an epically random punk showcase.
Take, for example, Portland's The Taxpayers who champion "goof punx, DIY music, social awareness, and," of all things, "Jimmy Buffett."
As evident from the video below, Taxpayers shows sound like a pop-punk marching band has been let loose in a zoo. And they look like it too.
Riding the last bit of momentum from the Plan-It-X Records-led folk-punk golden era of the early to mid 2000s, the 'Payers find precedent in big and wacky ensembles such as radical musical-theatre extravaganza Soophie Nun Squad and anarcho-folkies Defiance, Ohio. Both groups made use of a variety of instruments that aren't typical of punk rock -- violin, trumpet, upright bass, trombone, banjo -- and played them fast and sloppy like true punx.
Similarly, The Taxpayers run on vegetable oil, big toothy grins, and unwashed dorky dancing.
The Taxpayers and The Wild with Montage. Thursday, January 5. Sweat Records, 5505 NE Second Ave., Miami. Doors open at 8 p.m. Call 786-693-9309 or visit sweatrecordsmiami.com.
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