I was scrolling through Instagram, I saw a young band claiming to Fat Mike that they were the “future of Punk Rock” (and they like to party too). So obviously, I stopped what I was doing and found their most recent release on the internet.

Informal Society’s 2018 release Sorry for the Mess… is aptly titled, in that it is a mess. Not necessarily in a bad way, but also not in a good way. It starts with a street punk banger “I’m Split” which emotes feelings of the early crust punkers who didn’t care about anything or anyone, just wanted to party and play as fast and as loud as they could. Which makes sense when you hit “Chopping Lines”, which is basically just the singer talking about all the different ways he’s going to get high tonight. But, none of the tracks, save the common theme of getting high, really work well with each other.

The guitarist has some very decent riffs throughout the first few tracks, but after five or six tracks, the intentional “grit” the singer pushes out on top of them start to feel a bit annoying. And they repeatedly feel the need to have a choir like background vocal section on every chorus.

There were a few good tracks, but the flow of the record just didn’t work for me. For a band that claims to be “L.A. punk legends” and the “future of Punk Rock”, I was really expecting more.

The tenth track brings out Suzi Moon to assist on vocals in “Anything for Rock N’ More”, and she is definitely the highlight of the album. Her vocals bring out the musicality that the band seemed to be aiming for throughout the rest of the album. It was very reminiscent of “Lori Meyers”, without the Fat Mike fetish/porn vibe, and the lead vocals are somehow less annoying when paired with Suzi’s.

On second listen, I also enjoyed the music behind “Self Destructiveness”, but I warn any listener not to expect intelligent lyrics, which is often what I enjoy the most. It has a dub/ska-core intro that tones down the need to be over the top that the rest of the album succumbs to. The live version of “Alcohol” also sounded decent, but mainly because the vocalist wasn’t “trying” to sound a certain way, like in every track prior. But still, with lyrics like “I like to drink more than I like to fuck”, it left this listener happy it was ending the album.

I enjoy my fair share of street punk, but it definitely isn’t my “go to” of genres. Even as casual listener, I can honestly say that this album missed its mark, unless you want eleven tracks devoted to drinking and doing drugs. Luckily for these guys, there is a market for a band that only sings about getting messed up.