The thing about Diarrhea Planet is, no matter how good their recordings sound, they will always be a better live band. That is just a fact. And it’s not to take anything away from their studio work or their newest EP, Aliens in the Outfield. Diarrhea Planet are simply a band you need to see live in order to fully appreciate and understand them.
But this is a review of their new EP, which is quite a good little EP. At only five songs, the conciseness of the album (something I always consider a plus) is strange when considering Diarrhea Planet’s balls-out, four-guitar rock style. You almost expect them to throw in a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover once in a while. The Southern influenced and shred-centric guitar parts featured in almost all of their songs make this an intuitive connection.
This release from Diarrhea Planet was less in the direction of a pump-up, almost arena rock mentality, and more so a pop-punk one, at times almost sounding like the Ramones, but with a more modern and technically rich execution.
Maybe the most surprising track on Aliens in the Outfield was the final one, “Peg Daddy.” The first half of the song sounded like it could have been on an Explosions in the Sky record, which is an angle I never considered for Diarrhea Planet, but with their guitar playing ability, it worked out pretty well. The song then transitions into a part with heavy instrumentals and a killer vocal melody. “Peg Daddy” is the gem of the album even though, at first I was slightly turned off by the post-rock feel. It’s a song worth listening to multiple times.
Diarrhea Planet, despite their name, which people either love or hate, just straight up shreds as a band. It was exciting to see them try to go pretty raw on this release, which felt perfectly rough around the edges but still tight.
Rating: B
