Bandcamp Artist of the Week: Digital Leather

When I listen to Sponge by Digital Leather I am torn between pulling out my best Molly Ringwald dance steps and kicking in the windshield of police cruisers. It effortlessly bounces between shit like Oingo Boingo and the Circle Jerks the way Joel bounces between Thai lady boy porn and old Cyndi Lauper videos for his self love sessions.

I stumbled down the Digital Leather rabbit hole* while downloading some swell sounds by Pressed And. Their shared label, Crash Symbols, has all sorts of amazing music that has dominated my iPod for the past fortnight, but it’s Digital Leather that's been the undisputed champion of my ear holes for the entirety.

*yes code and yes trademarked.

There is something about Digital Leather and Sponge that separates them from the pack. It's that same trait that makes people that call jeans - dungarees, khakis - chinos, and booze - hooch. I believe it's called class. It's off kilter, slightly warped and unhinged. It's like they found an alternate time line for the 80s where Jimmy Carter ran the country into the ground for a few more years before the nation turned to an oppressive Christian leader who outlawed fun and anal; Sponge is the underground rebel music that kicks things off in the decaying urban jungles and scares the shit out of good god fearing rural white folks and forces them to say shit like “what about the children???”. God I hate those fucking people.

Picture it as the music that Hard Harry from Pump up the Volume would have made to inspire the future utopia; if he wasn’t a self righteous prick who was upset about living in the burbs. fucking bad ass right?

In all seriousness had I heard this before dropping our top 10 albums of the year it would have easily cracked my personal top 5, it is that good. The energy is amazing. The songs lodge themselves in your skull and your kneecaps. It is exactly the kind of music I have been waiting for my whole adult life.