It’s too easy to throw together three chords and play some variation of any given punk band. Instead, Money in the Banana Stand opts to champion the impetuous yet insightful virtues of small town frustration with punk rock merely as its template. In this follow-up to the debut, the band eschews the traditional power chord paradigm in favour of overdriven, jangly Stratocasters and jagged, angst-ridden anthemic song structures. There are still elements of punk roots anchored in the band’s sound, but inflected with more textured guitars in the vein of Dinosaur Jr. The songs are executed with all the grace and charm of a bull in a china shop, yet with a reckless spirit that is genuinely spontaneous and captivating.
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2012.