Formed in early 2017 as a part-time outlet for three guys who just wanted to play pop punk, but were committed to bands with other things in mind.
Toronto’s pop punk trio The Mendozaz drop their long awaited second album “Up and At Them”.
It’s been just shy of 4 years since Johnny (guitar, vocals), Michael (bass, vocals) and Skitchy Mendoza (drums) released music under the name The Mendozaz. No, they’re not brothers. Yes, they’re fans of The Ramones. The gap in between releases is not due to laziness seeing as each of the Mendozaz is involved in other bands and projects, which is how the band started in the first place. As it states in their bio, it was suppose to be nothing too serious, just an outlet to release fast and fun music – “a love letter to 90’s skate punk”.
The album opens with “Sitting By These Rocks”, as soon as you hear the strum of that first note you’re teleported to your buddy’s couch, it’s 1999 and you just fired up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It’s like no time has passed since ‘99 or 2017 when “Two Days To Retirement”, Mendozaz first album dropped. The bands right back into the groove, with catchy hooks and fast beats, foot on the accelerator and no chance of hitting the brakes.
Just like that the album is over with the clock timing out around the 30 minute mark and every song under 3 minutes long. It’s a classic pop punk album and any fan of early Green Day or Off Spring, or Ned’s Atomic Dustbin would be happy to own it, especially for the Kill Your Television cover that closes out the album. If I were to choose my favourite song it would have to be “Lasso Of Truth”, which shows a more hardcore side of the band or Murder which the band released a music video for just near the end of 2020.
-Reviwed by Cody
Punk Rock Mag 