Scene Point Blank kicks off our featured stream series for 2024 with the debut EP from Small Doses, a pop-punk band formed in 2022.
While technically a new group, the band was formed by the reunion of two former high school bandmates in the group Fourandahalf nearly 30 years ago.
In the intervening years, those musicians have played with Dawn of the Dude, Vacation Bible School, Luxury Spirit, and Off With Their Heads. Matt and John reconnected in a small North Carolina town and filled out the lineup with Crystal (Zombie Queen, the Rory Kelly Band).
As the presser puts it:
Small Doses’ self-titled EP Small Doses is a love letter to the sonically dissonant bands we grew up loving and listening to until the tape broke. Sometimes pop, oftentimes noise, Small Doses' only real goal has always been to write songs that are enjoyable to perform with people who are enjoyable to perform them with. Everything else is bullshit.
That comes through right away on the first track. "'New Job' was the first riff, first drum beat, and first lyric of the band. It was written in a way that was so completely effortless, it just felt appropriate that our first record start with that song," John tells us. The song is heavy, plodding, yet melodic, with a sense of urgency that carries through the full 8-song record as it blends melodic hardcore, poppy elements, and even some riff-heavy post-hardcore and metallic touches.
The EP will release on Let's Pretend Records on January 24. Listen to it here first:
Small Doses is already at work on a follow-up.
They play a dual record release show with Fantomez on Feb. 10 at Fleetwoods in Asheville, NC (also with Those Dogs and Flippants).
