Bodies and Control and Money and Power

On their debut full-length, Bodies and Control and Money and Power, Washington, D.C. quartet Priests explore both punk fury and melodic foundations, recalling the best moments of some of their hometown's brilliantly abrasive punk legacy. Its seven blasts of mutant post-punk span a wide range of sound, with wobbly rhythms and winding, deliberate, and sometimes strangely surfy guitar lines all anchored by lead singer Katie Alice Greer's frenetic and always in-the-red vocal performances. The skronky no wave bluster of "Doctor" quickly shifts gears into its unsettling but catchy chorus as a wall of backing vocals sings the urgent and melodic refrain of "You put your fingers in other people's mouths all day, don't you doctor?" like it's just another lyric in any given pop song. D.C. punk bands have traditionally had a knack for marrying chaos and catchiness, and Priests have definitely picked up the torch in that regard. The start-stop urgency of the nearly breathless "New" and rubber-band basslines of "And Breeding" call to mind In on the Kill Taker-era Fugazi, while "Modern Love/No Weapon" taps into some of the same off-kilter mod pop explosions of Slant 6. The album was recorded with help from Black Eyes member Hugh McElroy, and some of the same outsider sentiments of that band come through in the subtleties of the production, be it a lingering trail of tape echo or slightly too-overblown vocal track lurking low in the mix. Bodies and Control and Money and Power's poppiest moment comes with "Right Wing," a driving song where Greer sounds uncannily like Courtney Love, complete with whispery backing vocals floating among the song's layers of sneery catchiness. Brilliantly produced and bubbling over with energy, this short album successfully captures some of the electricity that made Priests' live shows so noteworthy, and further cements them both in a long line of excellent D.C. punk bands and the top tier of punk bands of their time.