It’s been several months, a national tour and more than a few local gigs since Double Negative settled into its current lineup after replacing original drummer Brian Walsby with Brain F≠’s Bobby Michaud and original singer Kevin Collins with Logic Problem’s Cameron Craig. (May’s Hits EP memorialized the short-lived formation with guitarist Scott Williams, bassist Justin Gray, Michaud and Collins.)
This Fall, that now-stable roster will make its vinyl debut on two 7-inch EPs — volumes 3 and 4 of the band’s Hardcore Confusion series. Double Negative recorded five new songs with producer Will Evans and sent them off to be mastered by Greg Elkins while the band hustles up to New York this weekend for The Power of The Riff Festival, where they’ll play alongside Sunn O))), Agnostic Front and Negative Approach, among others.
The plan, according to a post on Double Negative’s Facebook wall, is to have the new EPs minted in time for a long string of tour dates in September supporting the Keith Morris-fronted punk supergroup OFF!, the resurrected first-generation hardcore marauders Negative Approach and jittery punk mischief-makers The Spits. They’ll blow the roof off at Kings Sept. 30.
They’ve let loose one track already. “Boys For Sale” features the band’s signature thumb-screw tension, winding and unloading into abrupt bursts of blinding force. The powerful torrents Michaud powers from the drum kit keep the momentum as the band splinters off into a more spacious arrangement. “Boys For Sale” features the closest thing to a proper guitar solo — a blade-twisting death metal slither — that Double Negative has ever recorded. It’s worth noting how seamlessly new vocalist Craig has transitioned into the band; like Collins, he possesses a dry timbre and an agility with stretching syllables.
