Sin Vida

That the members of Denver's Sin Vida are of Mexican descent won't come as a surprise to anyone listening to their recent EP, The Westwood Anthem. Besides the disc's occasional switch from English to Spanish, the track "Mexican BBQ" even comes with a Tejano breakdown — one filtered through gruff,...

By Jason Heller

August 20, 2009

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That the members of Denver's Sin Vida are of Mexican descent won't come as a surprise to anyone listening to their recent EP, The Westwood Anthem. Besides the disc's occasional switch from English to Spanish, the track "Mexican BBQ" even comes with a Tejano breakdown — one filtered through gruff, blunt, raw punk rock. Unabashedly melodic, Westwood feels like a welcome throwback to Bay Area punk bands like Crimpshrine, complete with garbled vocals and sludgy guitar hooks, but there's plenty of humor and even vulnerability mixed in with the distortion and angst. And on the CD's hidden track, the band takes on acoustic balladry with a yearning, heartrending sloppiness that doesn't require any specific cultural background — punk, Hispanic or otherwise — to be totally moved by.

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