Three Speed combine pop punk hooks with hints of early rock and roll and outlaw country lyricism to craft a remarkable debut recording.
Matt Carter
Long Gone is the debut album from Moncton’s Three Speed. Further extending the region’s decades-long punk rock lineage, Three Speed, with all their pop punk hooks, single string guitar leads, and songs of love, loss and angst, have taken all that music’s familiarity and combined it with hints of early rock and roll and outlaw country lyricism to craft a remarkable debut recording sure to remain a highlight on Moncton’s punk rock family tree for years to come.
Upon first listen, the 90’s influence on Long Gone is big. That paradoxical era when punk took a bath and welcomed love songs and pop vocals into a space largely devoid from such tropes proved to be incredibly popular and defined an entire generation’s interpretation of what punk rock was all about. That might even be the only punk you know, in which case you have my sympathies. Nevertheless, the 90’s punk explosion and the lasting aftershocks yielded a lot of great bands and cemented a style of music Three Speed have taken and made their own.
There are homages to like of the Descendents and Green Day and The Queers and even Big Drill Car throughout this eleven song collection. Those are undeniable. But the album’s true strength comes from songs like Love Sick with all its 50’s high school dance vibes, and the way songs like Leaving Town and Old Flames blend Buddy Holly era rock simplicity with Cash-like lyricism to create a space where all these varied influences can exist and play off each other. This jambalaya, once identified for what it is, can be heard through every song on this album in one form or another making Long Gone a much stronger record than any three song peruse could ever reveal. This one deserves a full listen.
