No High Fives to Bullshit/Snuggle

Snuggle puts in two tracks of snarly, refreshingly unpolished, melodic punk with the archly defiant "Commercial" and the edgy and almost spooky "Aces." No High Fives to Bullshit's "Drawing a Blank" is a dense and dynamic slab of melodic hardcore. But the real gem here is No High Fives' "Colt .45." Initially sounding like a merely great poppy punk song, about halfway through it downshifts in velocity, but not in intensity, into one of the best anthemic post-punk songs in recent years. Guitars intersect in beautiful moments of atmospheric dynamics. Chords hang in the air, and the driving rhythms lock together for what is that rare contemplative punk-rock song possessed of a gritty beauty. This is a welcome dose of evolution in an often artistically conservative art form.