ALASKA & Lang Vo's WORDS HURT Return with Punk/Hardcore-minded THE ATTITUDE EP Inspired By Circle Jerks & Sun Kil Moon (Bandcamp)

THE ATTITUDE EP is the latest release from ALASKA & Lang Vo's group, WORDS HURT. Although, it consists of 9 tracks, the EP only clocks in at just under 11:30 with the longest track lasting a frantic minute and 55 seconds. As many of you may remember, Lang Vo, actually, mentioned WORDS HURT's then-unnamed EP within The Witzard's December 2017 interview with both ALASKA & Lang: "I think, this time around, we were mostly dealing with fresh-ish material, on both ends. We actually made a whole EP and were going to release it for fun, but scrapped it and started over and made SOUL MUSIC FOR THE SOULLESS. We are still going to release that EP for free soon..." As Lang Vo mentioned, WORDS HURT in fact, recorded THE ATTITUDE EP prior to their 2017 full-length, SOUL MUSIC FOR THE SOULLESS, and initially, intended to release it before or in place of the album. While you may not hear it right off the bat, THE ATTITUDE EP was interestingly enough, created with hopes of employing an oft-used Punk/Hardcore approach throughout a Hip-Hop/Rap album. Shout-out to ALASKA & Lang Vo for including actor Robert Romanus AKA Mike Damone's "ugly mug" on the cover of their Fast Times at Ridgemont High-referencing THE ATTITUDE EP.


"THE ATTITUDE is our attempt to experiment with the form. I was inspired by two vastly different works, when writing the album. The first was the Punk Rock classic, Group Sex by Circle Jerks; a 14-song, 15-minute masterpiece," ALASKA wrote within a recent fan club email blast. "I wanted to take the same approach: short songs, hook-heavy, short verses. The second was Sun Kil Moon's "Ben's My Friend," which was this perfect glimpse into middle age life and the mundane beauty of [it's] routine and everyday life," ALASKA continued. What Lang & ALASKA ended up creating, in the end, is really an interesting take on Hip-Hop and Punk/Hardcore, as well as a stark contrast to WORDS HURT's SOUL MUSIC FOR THE SOULLESS. It's honestly, great to hear two admittedly aging late 1990's-early 2000's Indie Rap vets, offer up their take on modern Hip-Hop mixed with classic Punk/Hardcore ethos. ALASKA & Lang Vo's "Odd Rap album," THE ATTITUDE EP, along with SOUL MUSIC FOR THE SOULLESS, is currently available to stream or download on WORDS HURT's Bandcamp page. ALASKA & PJ Katz's long-gestated collaborative effort, He's The PJ, I'm ALASKA is currently available to purchase on cassette from Pig Food Records, as well as nearly every digital retailer and streaming platform.