#4 - BORRACHOS, CHINGASOS Y RUCAS - By Numbers On Napkins

Coming in at number four just so happens to be the wild party punk rock band, Numbers On Napkins, with the release of their second full length album, “Borrachos, Chingasos Y Rucas”. NON spent the past three years, in and out of the studio working on the album, and the end result was remarkable.

One thing is for certain, NON has done a lot of growing musically since the release of their first full length in 2004. The bands debut album, “Waiting for Tomorrow” was a finely tuned and highly refined pop punk masterpiece, but “Borrachos...” is so much more than that. The band still took the time to clean and polish things up, but they brought a whole new style to the table, an innovative blend of punk rock and more!

The band requested the help of the legendary Joe Queer, frontman for the infamous pop punk band, The Queers, with the new album, and their wish was quickly granted. NON developed a friendship with Joe Queer after the band opened for The Queers in 2005. Since then, NON plays with The Queers every time they come to Phoenix. NON asked Joe Queer to help produce the new album, and Joe accepted, performing the majority of the producing in absentia, using the internet and emails to listen to mp3 files and relay input regarding different tracks. Although the end result was something majestic and explosive!

NON also seemed to play much more complex music on the new full length, especially when you hear tracks like, “Forget This, I’m Going to Tokyo”. The drums are rolling everywhere, with a borage of cymbals crashing throughout the song, as a crunchy guitar blends with the vibrant and bright tones of the opposite guitar, and the beefy sounding bass bellows in the back mix, along with a faint piano and psychedelic synthesizer tones screeching through the verses.

Other tracks like the lyrically superb, “Ten Years Ago Today”, and the ultra catchy, “Politics as Usual” maintain that familiar pop punk sound that the band generated from their first release, and songs like “Confrontational” show the band slightly experimenting and expanding that pop punk style.

Every member of the band contributed to the songwriting process, and “Borrachos...” also marks the first time that drummer Tad Gurthman and guitarist Matt Martini take their turn as lead vocalist. Gurthman performs lead vocals on the bands popular song, “Go Away”, and Martini performs lead vocals on the comedic last track, “Bad Decisions”. Overall, “Borrachos, Chingasos, Y Rucas” is a concrete second release from this booze driven punk rock party band, that shows that NON can be artistic and diverse, but still have one hell of a good time!