Review: The Manix - "Van Activities" [7-inch]
Pop-punk should not be this fun! Wait a minute, yes it should. It’s just that since melodic masochists like Alkaline Trio and all their equally distraught copycats exploded a few years back, it seems like everyone outside of the Ramones-core crowd has been singing about heartbreak and empty bottles. Not so, with the Manix. Like the rusted rickshaw of its namesake, Van Activities burns rubber on a solid foundation of four on the floor. From ribbing Val Kilmer on the spry sing-along “Madmartigan” to shoulder-shrugging agnostics on “Metal Endings,” the quartet carves out a niche that’s increasingly their own despite well-deserved comparisons to Dillinger Four and Toys That Kill. Intro paragraph notwithstanding, Van Activities isn't all smiles and chuckles, as the EP’s sole comedown “Reach for the Sky” asserts, “Thanks again, this is goodbye / You should hear yourself sometimes / You’re nothing more that I’d pursue / 'Cause you’re not pulling through this fine.” The blistering inso