Real Cops - 2012 Demo Tape

 I actually got off my lazy old ass and went to see one of my current favorite punk/hardcore bands Deep Sleep last night in a tiny basement somewhere in the nether regions of New Jersey, and not only did Deep Sleep kick some serious ass but as an added bonus I was more than pleasantly surprised by opening act Real Cops from Jersey City NJ.

The real cops brought down the house  with a ripping set of loose angry hardcore that had me catching myself with a smile on my face on more than one occasion. After the bands set I quickly made a dash for their merch table and grabbed a copy of their 2012 demo tape, slid it in my pocket and found myself wondering over the next 24 hours if the tape could possibly capture with my ears what I had just witnessed with my eyes.

For the most part the demo tape delivered on the promise of the bands live set...the music is fast yet punishing with excellent angry vocals and plenty of energy to go around, on the downside the cassette format holds back the sound quality a bit or at least on my tape it does, and the loose  feel of the live performance has been tightened up as you would expect, however part of me sort of hoped that the recorded songs held onto at least a little bit of the looseness in the guitars that was demonstrated in the live setting. Overall the positives well outweigh the couple of negatives I mentioned, also if I had not seen the band live prior to hearing them then I would have gone into this tape with no preconceived notions and would be all together raving about it...that being said please email the band , buy a demo tape and support them live...you will not be disappointed...Dave G.

P.S. Just discovered the Real Cops bandcamp page where you can download the demo for free...the quality of the band camp files is excellent and it clears up my complaint about the quality of the cassette format. The more I listen to this demo the more I like it...   

Realcopsnj@gmail.com 

Bandcamp: listen to the demo