Released: 2021
If California’s longstanding credentials as a major node in the hardcore punk scene are decades old, they also do weird things to people’s perceptions.
Scowl formed in 2019 but found themselves stymied by the pandemic like everyone else. Singer Kat Moss grew up in the decidedly un-punk Rocklin and freely admitted to not listening to scene archetypes like Black Flag or the Descendents until her late teens, but relocated to Santa Cruz the quintet’s work ethic rapidly built some word of mouth profile.
Not everybody was having that, of course. Aware of it’s inevitability, Moss anticipated the sneering she and the rest of the band were going to be the recipients of on Bloodhound, the opening track of their debut album How Flowers Grow. With less than a hundred breakneck seconds to play with, there was still time enough for a defiant message to haters as she furiously scrawled “Learn to shut/Your fucking mouth”, advice you didn’t need to be from California, or anywhere else, to understand.
The Voice Of Unreason 