For the most part, barring releases from well known touring acts or special supergroups and things of the like, SDP tends to keep to our city’s fine roster of local punk bands when it comes to reviews. Despite this, we field a fair number of requests for interviews and reviews from bands in other areas. The lion’s share of these bands don’t end up with much coverage on SDP unless perhaps they are playing a show here. However, every once in a while, we get a submission from a band outside the footprint that is simply to good or too interesting to ignore. From Parts Unknown is one of these exceptions.
Hailing from Fort Worth, TX, From Parts Unknown submitted a request for review on a lil 3 song EP titled Trucker Speed. I’ve had the link sitting in my inbox since the beginning of March, and I was about to delete old emails, including this one since the link provided was actually broken. Let it be known that I have little patience for this sort of thing, but at a glance, I realized the end of the URL was simply mistyped to read “bandcap” as opposed to “bandcamp”. As such, I went ahead and made the adjustment to get to the correct place online. As I was going through this process, I remember thinking to myself something along the lines of, “I’m futtzing around with this stupid a$$ busted link and this band is probably going to suck!”
Well, as often is the case with me (just ask my wife), I had to eat crow. From Parts Unknown is damn good! I’m not going to go into a lengthy discussion or dissect each song one at a time, but the three “gentleman” behind this band are putting down some noteworthy and refreshingly original music. The tempos are fast, at times blistering, and everything is played with explosive dynamics and certain instrumental proficiency. The drums and guitar riffs are rhythmically exciting with a hardcore/rockabilly/redneck/ska blend, and the vocals remind me of a younger Tony Sly…think Don’t Miss the Train/The Daily Grind era. Immediately impressed with the EP, I was happy to learn that the band also has a previous release (while a little more sketchy) titled Bruiser with 7 tracks on it. I found both releases to be worth my time and Trucker Speed exceptionally so! I’ll be keeping an eye on these guys. Perhaps you should put em on your radar as well!
4 out of 5 SDP skulls!
Artist: From Parts Unknown
Album: Trucker Speed
Label: Self Released
Release Date: February 10th, 2018
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Reviewed by Todd Dulawan
