Local Review: Prize Country – Lottery of Recognition

Prize Country
Lottery of Recognition

Exigent Records
Street: 02.27
Prize Country = Unsane + Zeke + some Refused

Formed in May of 2006, Prize Country has a way with being catchy without being infectious, fun without being a guilty pleasure and rockin’ without being masturbatory. No matter how many times I listen to this, I really have been unable to find any flaws. While the vocal tone would be the only detractor for my personal tastes, I can’t even say that it’s necessarily bad, just… distinct. Their hard rock style seems to be influenced by older noise rock and punk, but the guitar layering is actually quite intricate and entirely too technical to be considered anything close to “punk”. The secret weapon could possibly be their bass player, being crystal clear in the production, and how he and the rhythm section work together. Each listen of this has me enjoying it more, car windows down, steering-wheel drum kit out in full force. Turn this up to eleven.