The Lanterns

Tired of punk rock songs that are formulaic and feel done to death? Give The Lanterns a listen. The Lanterns are not your typical punk band, in fact they might fit better under some different categorization, I'd suggest alternative rock but that's become such a bastardized umbrella term that it's meaningless. Cowpunk could be another description as the bands songs are tinged with a Social Distortion-esque sound complete with bluesy guitar riffs combined with the personal lyrics of vocalist Courtney Denison. Denison could be Mike Ness with two X chromosomes, in fact based on The Lanterns new EP "Postcard Pictures" she could have ghost written a lot of Social D's catalogue going back to Prison Bound. But the songwriting is where those comparisons end, The Lanterns songs favor crisp fierce vocals over raspy shot ones, and a female singer adds new depths to this cowpunk sound that's associated with male dominated bands like Social D, The Supersuckers, and the Meat Puppets.

Hailing from Portsmouth, The Lanterns are one of the best localish bands I can remember hearing, and their EP is probably the best recording from a New Hampshire band since some vintage Queers stuff (and that comment is with no disrespect to fellow Portsmouth natives The Guts who have some nice stuff themselves).

Postcard Pictures is available now from the great Cheapskate Records, and the band also has a previous full length out titled "Last Generation" which I will have to check out.