Hockey Dad get salty on independent EP 'The Clip'
Hockey Dad take their magnetic brand of high-energy surf rock independent on their latest EP The Clip, a six-track tour-de-force of the dynamic duo’s uncanny ability to blend optimistic melodies with acerbic take-downs into a barn boiling cocktail of confrontational rippers and introspective anthems.
There’s a persistent electricity that crackles across The Clip’s tracklist, a renewed sense of boundless liberation that radiates with the possibility of a fresh new season. But like the bucolic seaside lifestyle that informs much of Hockey Dad’s perspective, there’s an inherent saltiness in the air that imbues the proceedings with a omnipresent tang, lending a edgy accent to the full throttle “Barn Boiler” and taking center stage on the cheeky array of blisteringly barbed aphorisms on “All Hat No Cattle.” Multiple riffs on “Lifeline” capture the expansive nervousness of David Knudson’s technical fretwork for Minus The Bear, ebbing and flowing amidst the verses and hooks with the shifting gravity of tidal cycles on one of The Clip’s most engaging examples of Hockey Dad’s reinvigorated sense of intentional songcraft.
After spending the first half of the EP focusing their energies on external characters, Hockey Dad turns the lens inward on the back side for a trio of tracks that unpack the emotional baggage accumulated through the natural process of living. “Hole” retreats into the relative safety of purposeful detachment, shedding personal connections and physical accoutrements in equal measure in favor of a buoyant lightness of being, but still anchored by an albatross of doubt about the true cost of selling off everything and everyone that matters. By the time The Clip gets to the penultimate track Hockey Dad has risen beyond the bullshit onto a plane of relative contentment with simply watching the “Backyard” go by, unaffected by the slings and arrows of petty drama.
“Breaking Bottles” closes out The Clip with a country-western slant that channels an air of small town restlessness not unlike Tom Petty’s iconic “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” reframing the preceding compositions around slow pangs of regret that cast one final look back over the shoulder before striking off alone once again, a rolling stone on a journey of self-imposed exile forever in pursuit of fulfilment that lies just beyond the horizon.
Stream The Clip on Spotify and follow Hockey Dad on Instagram.
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