Spoken from a rose garden in Eugene, Oregon, during a recent weekend getaway, Jason Hansen’s words are more suggestive of the flesh-prickling thorns that adorn the flowers than any pretty petals. “I think we’re genuinely pissed off,” the singer/guitarist for Vegas punks The Gashers says. “What happened to punk music? It’s about being angry about what’s going on. Aren’t you pissed off?”
The Gashers’ new record, In Trust We Bleed, seems directed at anyone not answering that last question affirmatively. It’s a punk rock call-to-arms, a record that resonates—violently—as a direct product of the times: contentious, combative, ideologically unwavering. On one loud, linear shout-along after the next, Hansen, drummer Sandy Moreno and bassist James Messina, all of whom take turns on the mic, assail class warfare, income inequality and the perceived limitations of the two-party system with curled lips and clenched fists.
It’s an album of maximalist minimalism, these probing, p.o.’d jams getting to the bayonet-sharp point quickly. “Me and Sandy watch a lot of documentaries,” Hansen explains of The Gashers’ writing process. “We’ll get all fired up on something. ‘Man, this is bullsh*t!’” To wit, “Cannibalistic Cows,” a two-minute rager about the dangers of GMOs.
It’s not all furrowed brows and bloody knuckles, though. Midway through the album comes “Bender,” an ode to Judd Nelson’s attitudinal Breakfast Club character. “You gotta have some fun songs like that,” Hansen explains. “Something not-so-serious.”
The Gashers will celebrate Trust with a July 1 release show at the Double Down, their first live gig in eight months. Though the album was recorded late last summer, it feels like an election-year record, a snarling indictment of armchair idealism.
“If people spent half the time they spend writing all these little political posts on the Internet, if they actually went outside and did something, do you know how different things would be?” Hansen asks. “It drives me nuts.”
It drives his band just the same.
The Gashers with The Negative Nancys, Vicious Cycle, The Beer Studs. July 1, 10 p.m., free. Double Down Saloon, 702-791-5775.
