This Rhode Island hardcore band’s 2015 LP, Full
Communism, was refreshing both in its white-knuckled attack and its
far-left specificity (see “100% Inheritance Tax”). Produced by Fugazi’s
Guy Picciotto, the Boys’ third album comes with the potent sonic upgrade they
deserve. The blaring sax outro “Lips That Bite” brings to mind the
Seventies revelations of X-Ray Spex. But Downtown Boys aren’t about reliving
other bands’ glories; on the Spanish-language “Somos Chulas (No Somos
Pendejas),” singer Victoria Ruiz carves white-supremacist ideology a new
one, making her own utopia right before our eyes.
