It would be really easy for a lazy journalist or casual punk rock fan to unfairly pigeonhole Pour Habit without ever having heard them. After all, they’re a fast, riff heavy metallic/melodic punk band from Southern California, their name is a drinking pun and they’re on Fat Wreck Chords. However! That kind of reductive logic ignores that this is one of the most out there, genre bending artists to unapologetically mix up musical styles while weaving politics and partying together into a one of a kind manifesto that hearkens back to the early days experimentation in insurgent music. Pour Habit’s new slab, Got Your Back, comes out on Fat Wreck Chords on April 12, 2011, they’re about to have a whole lot of people talking about the way they do shit, which is frankly, pretty unusual. So, then, let’s get to it. What’s Pour Habit all about?

Well, for starters, these dudes play a weird, technical hybrid of punk, metal, malt liquor and reggae. They’ve been known to spruce up their shows with break dancing, AND they can even do all this while drunk. And it’s this very combination of off-beat musical proficiency and reckless debauchery that first attracted Fat Wreck Chords to Pour Habit like bums to a guy with some cigarettes and led to the re-release of their self released debut full length, Suiticide, subsequent high profile tours with such genre heavyweights and Pennywise, Strung Out and NOFX and finally landed them back in the studio with none other than Fat Mike himself at the helm, producing their new record Got Your Back. Can you imagine the hangovers that Mike must have fought through to bring you all these riffs and all this pummeling?

And make no mistake, pummeling is the result of this collaboration. Got Your Back is thirteen tracks of ball melting, face burning speed, angular riffs, genre bending and lyrics about everything from Machiavellian political maneuvering to getting totally shithoused and a vibe that can’t be easily categorized. It’s also worth mentioning that anyone looking for Suiticide part two will be disappointed. Sure, the party is still rolling on Got Your Back, but it’s hardly the focus. It’s almost as if after the massive bender of touring on Suiticide the Pour Habit dudes woke up, brushed their teeth, dusted off their dicks and came correct with a vastly more emotionally heavy and politically driven album. But don’t think that means it doesn’t still totally slay. I guess one of the dudes in the band referred to their sound as “a mountain landing on your face” so uh…yeah, that’s heavy, and it kind of makes it sound like maybe they still get stoned every now and then, but still you gotta admit, that sounds pretty cool.

Anyway, in support of Got Your Back, the boys in Pour Habit are hitting the road for the foreseeable future both as headliners and as support for more of the big guns in punk rock. Remember when I mentioned the break dancing earlier? That shit doesn’t show up on the record, but it happens at the live show, which is, I don’t think I need to tell you, not to be missed. I’m talking about Kirk Hammet-esque riff blazing behind honest-to-pete headspins! Any way you slice it, Pour Habit puts on the kind of high energy show that is guaranteed to wig out your parents, so come get in on the party. And bring your boom box. This shit’s uh…poppin’ off? Are the kids still saying that? No? Fuck. Okay, back to the Urban Dictionary I go.

Got Your Back out April, 12th 2011 on Fat Wreck Chords