Hardcore Summer will be headed straight into its epicenter when Sound and Fury goes down a matter of weeks, and outside the many exciting names on this year’s lineup, you’ve got one of last year’s highlights, best Buzz Sounds, and breakthroughs from the scene in Cosmic Joke helping kick off the weekend with what was earlier tipped as a “record release” show. Hmm…

But first, in case you slept on it, the eponymous 2024 debut album by the San Fernando Valley hardcore punk six-piece of vocalist Mac Miller, guitarist and vocalist Morgan Miller, guitarists Evan Row and Vince Amador, bassist Jake Goldstein, and drummer Niki Vahle heard them reworking throwback gestures from the Los Angeles scene circa its ’80s aggression and its ’90s melodic skate-punk sensibilities, all while speaking to the modern day strife of capitalism, consumption, and our own destructive habits. It was truly unruly and wicked fun.

None of those problems have been solved in a year’s time. Thank whatever is in control of this chaos for that if it fuels Cosmic Joke to persist further, as that marks the catalyst behind a new five-track extended play that fills the blanks on that mysterious release advert. Forced Perspective, a double assist from Triple B Records and Hardlore Records, hears the band get dangerously closer to the best kind of Bad Religion and Descendents comparisons with how tight they’re winding up hooks about the Earth’s demise (“Five Years Later”) and turning neurosis into big swinging “whoa-oah-oah!” anthems (“Forced Perspective”.)

But not everything is a recipe for hate. “Quid Pro Quo” and “Complex Character Development” are their own defined razorbacked furies against corruption and main character mindlessness, and “Psycho Killer” toys with the idea of inviting a psychobilly swagger into the pit, as long as it can check any impoliteness at the door. As the world continues to burn down again for an umpteenth summer, at least we’ve got Cosmic Joke giving us five great new reasons to soundtrack it with a skate jam into Hell.

Highlights: “Forced Perspective”, “Quid Pro Quo”, “Complex Character Development”

Directed by: Ryan Scott Graham

Cosmic Joke’s Forced Perspective is available now on Hardlore Records /Triple B Records.

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