Can't be denied - the story of Pummel

Part 1 of 2

PHOTO BY TODD POLLACK

Hardcore’s seen a lot of growth since the end of the pandemic. Myself and many others have talked ad nauseam about the influx of new faces at shows and the weird corporate opportunities afforded to certain bands. There’s also been a concerted effort to expand the genre’s sonic palette, or at least broaden the definition of what constitutes hardcore musically.

We’ve all seen the Grammy.com article, along with hundreds of other pieces from outlets like Stereogum and BrooklynVegan pontificating about which artist is proving hardcore isn’t or shouldn’t be contained by a rigid set of boundaries. And while the general sentiment of those articles is correct, people with their feet on the ground can see a burgeoning movement that — in a strictly musical sense — celebrates hardcore for what it always has been.

“Regular hardcore”, “demo-core”, “straightforward”, “meat and potatoes” — whatever you want to call it, a growing number of bands are bucking the notion that you need a chorus pedal or in-ear monitors to be a hardcore band.

Although it might feel like some sort of grand conspiracy to reject the changing face of “mainstream” hardcore, in reality, this pushback (if you can even call it that) is happening quite organically. We finally have enough distance from acts like The Rival Mob and No Tolerance for people to rip them off without feeling like they’re committing third-rate plagiarism. This phenomenon isn’t contained to one local scene, but as always, the Boston area has a finger in the pot.

Anklebiter, Attrition Rate, Burning Lord and C4 are some of the more popular BHC bands riding the current wave of straightforward hardcore that their city does better than anyone else. These groups are carrying on an important lineage — one that dates back to the early 80’s with X-Claim and Taang! Records.

Boston Hardcore, to me, means short bursts of punk rock energy with rock’n’roll swagger and hard riffs. Few cities boasts a wider and more influential array of heavy music, but you can trace Boston’s thread of meat and potatoes excellence from hardcore’s beginnings, through to bands like Slapshot in the 80’s, to the Youth Crew revival in the 90’s, to Lockin’ Out Records and Triple B since the turn of the century.

There’s been a couple lean periods. One is in the early 90’s, where the only Boston bands I can think of are metallic — Sam Black Church, Tree, and a very primordial version of Converge. Another somewhat thin period is the late 2010’s, where it seemed like the entire hardcore universe was tuned to Drop A, outside of a few key pockets in Florida and the mid-Atlantic.

Pummel was born in Boston during the latter period. Three of Pummel’s four founding members started going to shows in the heyday of legendary local labels Deathwish and Bridge 9. Ten years later, in the midst of metalcore’s total scene domination, they started a band to write singalong anthems.

“The [2016] demo songs are pretty effortless in terms of writing” says Pummel guitarist Steve Mobilia, one of the band’s founding and constant members. The band were going for midtempo NYHC riffs and catchy, impactful lyrics. “The [Deathwish and Bridge Nine] bands did not directly influence our sound. We just wanted to pump something out and release it to the world.”

PHOTO BY TODD POLLACK

Before talking to Steve, I would have sworn Pummel were studious disciples of bands like Mental and Righteous Jams, but he didn’t bring them up in the interview. I guess if anything, Pummel just had a similar approach — take simple, bouncy NYHC riffs and dip them in some of that dirty Boston water. The result, Pummel’s 2016 demo, did a pretty good job carrying on the local legacy at a time when not much else sounded like it.

“[Pummel] kept the torch burning. They bridged the gap from the late-mid 2010’s into the 2020’s” says Renee Girouard, a Boston local and the curator of Carrot Cake Zine. “Hardcore comes in waves and I think Pummel and their friends in Vantage Point and Restraining Order kept it alive and fun in Massachusetts during a quiet period. It helped plant the seeds for the post-Covid boom.”

Pummel were a notable local act when Girouard started going to shows around 2018. Their welcoming and inclusive vibe helped convert newcomers to full-time hardcore kids, as fresh faces seemed to pop up at every gig. This momentum came as a surprise for Mobilia, who remembers the band somewhat struggling to get off the ground.

“I thought everyone figured we sucked” he says, when asked about the band’s initial reception. “People did not know who we were, which part of the state we came from, or even how old we were. It took us like four months after our demo was released to get a show”.

Finally, bassist/guitarist John Wright convinced Sam Yarmuth from Triple B Records to put Pummel on the record release show for Sam’s band Glory. They took the opportunity and made a strong impression.

“After our first set Pat Flynn [from Have Heart and Fiddlehead] came up to Matt [McCarthy, Pummel’s vocalist] and asked if we wanted to play with [Flynn’s band] Free the next weekend. We shit our fucking pants man. It was a great start for Pummel, something we did not expect to happen.”

The band quickly established themselves as local favourites, often playing alongside their youth crew inspired friends in Vantage Point, which helped create an alternative local scene for youngsters like Girouard who weren’t really into the metallic side of hardcore.

“Pummel was around from the beginning of my personal attendance at hardcore shows” Girouard remembers. “I was more interested in the ‘regular hardcore’ lane which consisted locally of Pummel, Vantage Point, Restraining Order and Peace Test. Pummel was an entry point for so many kids [getting] into hardcore, and it seems like every show they played gained them more fans locally.”

Pummel’s slow but steady growth in popularity coincided with a musical refinement that saw them come into their own as players. They dropped the Force of Will cassette in 2017 — a faster, more refined attempt at the straightforward sound they tackled on the demo. A three song promo followed in 2018, where things really started to take shape sonically. The song lengths on that promo are all over two minutes, with lots of mid-tempo stomp and more technically complex instrumentation.

This musical evolution was a byproduct of the band’s members becoming more comfortable in their roles. “Matt gained confidence as a frontman, which inspired John and I to write better riffs” says Mobilia. Lineup changes also shaped the sonic direction. “Our first drummer, Steve, was not a hardcore dude. When [Nicholas] Birtles came in on drums and Changwan [Kim] on bass, it was easier to write songs. It all came together because we could apply what we knew about hardcore music.”

Pummel’s identity was coming into form and they were making a big impact on the local level. Their next chapter was setting up to be a success story with horizons beyond the Boston area, until a bout of bad timing ground things to a halt.

Part 2 coming soon.