CLASS- Scratching the Ceiling LP

Recorded over the course of one week in Tucson by the trio of Andy Puig and the Meyer Bros (Erik and Martin), Scratching the Ceiling provides ample evidence that lineup changes and out-of-state moves have not slowed Class down one bit. Guitar riffs that call to mind John Ellis swallowed by a k-hole, anxious & jumpy rhythms dripping with brotherly charisma propelling song after song like a steam engine, shouty vocals that sneer and snarl their way through the shitshow of contemporary society—it’s all here. The urgency feels very real this time as the band blows through 10 tracks documenting both the civilizational anxiety that has come to characterize our day-to-day existence and the bubbling desire to do something about it, to fight back in the streets. Andy Puig sets the tone early in the track “Are You Feeling Okay?” when he sings, “outside shoulder to shoulder/might die before we get older” reminding us that at this point, with “the rich kids” running everything, we may ultimately have little to lose but our chains. Things only pick up speed from there: tracks like “Evacuation Zone”, “Coward Age”, and “Blister Point” with their keen sense of melody and rhythmic structures refuse us any opportunity for complacency providing instead a soundtrack for our collective disaffection. These are not songs designed for the algorithm, these are shouts from a world on fire. This record is the musical and spiritual equivalent of a brick thrown at the cop in your head. Rage wrapped in melody and subtly intelligent songwriting is rage nonetheless—the violence is waiting in the wings just off stage. This isn’t just rock n roll, though it is rock n roll—good rock n roll, this is a case study of the conditions for survival in the simulacra.