song: "Party with the Kids Who Want To Party With You" - Bad Moves
words: Greg Katz
"There's a genocide of the poor, it just might come in a heat wave." Or, you know, maybe a global epidemic. So goes "Party with the Kids Who Wanna Party with You," another slab of note-perfect personal and political power pop from Washington D.C.'s Bad Moves. It's the opening volley from their second Don Giovanni Records full-length, Untenable, due on my birthday, May 29.
The expertly written "Party" starts low-key and alone with guitarist David Combs' manic vocals against Emma Cleveland's clanking bass and patient rim clicks from drummer Daoud Tyler-Ameen, with Combs wondering about the passage of time wasted networking in the indie rock scene, gazing at his smartphone, and "posting Instagrams of my cat – Christ, you know it ain't easy!" With the entrance of more vocals from guitarist Katie Park and the rest of the band, the track pinballs between political worries and hopeless drunken hookups, trying to locate meaning with the title mantra, "Party with the kids who wanna party with you! Party with the kids who wanna party with you!"
By the end of "Party," as what started as a bare groove breaks into a rager and the whole band shouts the title together, the four-singer quartet is living their community message. I want to party with the kids in Bad Moves, and you probably do too.