I’ve always found that the best listening experience anyone can hope to stumble across is an instance where material that you never expected to impress you ends up knocking you on your ass. The track plays, your jaw slowly comes unhinged, and by the time it ends you’re too busy eating your own words to try and defend lack of enthusiasm up front. It’s rare, which is all the more reason to tell everyone you know whenever artists are able to have that kind of affect on your life.

Hailing from Indiana with a sound that blends together the best elements of pop punk with a sound with the kind of lyrical sensitivity that usually comes after years spent traveling the country in the back of rusty vans, The Weekend Classic have all the makings of alternative music’s next big thing. Their latest two-song release, which is available now on Bandcamp, features a pair of powerhouse singles that convey more raw emotion than the vast majority of full-lengths that have come across my desk this year. “Dread The Weather” plays like Hit The Lights if each member went through the worst breakup of their lives just after Invicta hit the streets. It’s catchy and loud, but riddled with a sense of sadness that is hard to shake. “Fireworks,” which is arguably the more melancholy of the two, begins like a whisper before blossoming into a wall of sound that feels aimed at filling arenas. The lyrics touch on seeing the end of a relationship before it occurs and the many thoughts that fill one’s head after the separation has taken place. When the refrain gives way to the flood of guitar and drums about halfway through, it’s good enough to make your spine tingle, especially with a great pair of headphones.

Many bands in this sub-genre of alternative and pop punk put the majority of their effort into crafting songs filled with observations from everyday life in order to be relatable to music fans. The Weekend Classic prove with this release that they realize it’s not all about the lyrics, though they are strong throughout, it’s about the way the vocals and music combine to create feels-inducing audio glory that pours through your listening device and straight into your soul. This is no doubt helped, at least in part, by the mixing work of Mike Hart and mastering help from Dangerkids’ Tyler Smyth, but without The Weekend Classic first possessing quality songwriting abilities the rest would not matter all that much. Every great band starts with great songs, and here The Weekend Classic have delivered a perfect pair of tracks to accompany the fast-approaching fall season. You can stream the songs below:

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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