Bed Maker ★★★
Bed Maker
DISCHORD. DL/LP
Debut album from longtime punk players. Produced by Ian MacKaye.
Yes, Bed Maker sound very DC-punkcirca-1992. Not a bad thing on its own. An even better thing? They bring three decades’ worth of life lived to the buzz, clank, and rumble. Vin Novara’s drums – his rhythms are unexpected, but never out of place – feel especially of that time and place. And yet the lyrics, delivered in waves and sneers by Amanda MacKaye (ex-Desiderata, longtime scene organiser, and sister to Fugazi’s Ian) convey an empathy sometimes unavailable to younger folk. It’s detectable on the seeming re-assessment of ’90s punk tactics, Two Left Feet, in light of a world today that’s more dangerous than ever. “To take the bite out, we should have kicked your teeth in,” she says. It’s more palpable still on Fool’s Errand, the sketch of a caregiver who prioritises everyone’s needs but their own. Appropriately relentless, appropriately exhausted.