While many bands may try to create the most pissed off punk album of the year, Atlanta’s Nag may have already taken the prize for 2023 only six days in. Human Coward Coyote is fast, it’s heavy, but above both of those things it’s just pissed the fuck off. Rather than go for balls-to-the-wall compressed instrumentation with constantly screeching vocals, a sound that often tries and fails to embody extreme anger, Nag looks back upon punk tradition for a more emotionally potent toolset. Talk-singing vocals jeer at the supposedly innocent passerby, inviting the listener to point and laugh at the average joes who obsessively try to make themselves invisible.
Reminiscent of post-pro-tools garage rock such as Jay Reatard and McClusky, Nag’s newest effort distills a lifetime’s worth of rage directed at unremarkable people with punchable faces. In so doing, the band taps into underlying frustration that all people feel from time to time in a polite culture. Professionalism dictates that personality only emerges on funky socks Fridays, and Nag responds to such pointless oppression with a twenty minute middle finger. At times, the band seems more disgusted than annoyed, revealing a hatred for the status quo that extends beyond the boundaries of a fun, energetic punk album.
So, you know how your boss wants to be your best friend? Or how people spend their ten seconds in front of the Mona Lisa cloistered behind a camera? In your flash of rage at these ridiculous displays of stupidity, remember that the one genre that always responded to complete losers in the most beautiful way is still out there doing God’s work. When in doubt, return to punk rock.