Photo by Che Hise-Gattone

You wouldn’t be wrong to suspect someone is a genuine sociopath if they can’t see the harm in carelessly leaving someone on read for no red flag reason, or flaking on plans at the last minute, yet the age of the smart phone, social media, and dating app culture has give the green light to a really bad way of normalizing this certain strain of poor communication etiquette. And so, with etiquette going out the window, we call on an energy equally unhinged in a band like Spiritual Cramp to call it out in the San Francisco punk band’s latest single – and first since becoming the second signees to former Roadrunner A&R head David Rath and original Roadrunner founder, Cees Wessels’ new label, Blue Grape Music – “Phone Lines Down”. Vocalist Michael Bingham, a ways away as frontman for gloomy Bay Area post-punks Creative Adult, is surely not the one to cross here, scowling fakes with an unabashedly hyperactive confrontations. “I don’t need any help from you / I’ve got the answer!,” he shouts back at silence as an unstable voltage of electrical charges leave you breaking out in hives. In the same breath as SC’s scourge, we’re witness to their garage rock lament as further signal of its “the return of…” state. At least that much is getting through clear…

Spiritual Cramp’s “Phone Lines Down” b/w “Nah, That Ain’t It” single will be released June 16th on Blue Grape Music.