Fake Names

If the punk ethos is all about eschewing conventions and skirting expectations, Fake Names’ third full-length is true to its title. Despite the band’s impressive pedigree, its members—guitarists Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion) and Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace, The Faith), vocalist Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, INVSN), bassist Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside) and new drummer Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket From The Crypt, Off!)—created Punk Ruins in an organic manner that captured a moment instead of trying to recreate a certain era. The end result is an album that effortlessly merges D.C. post-hardcore with modern power-pop to create a collection of songs that are as catchy as they are cathartic. Recorded at the legendary Electrical Audio studios in Chicago with producer Matthew Barnhardt (Superchunk, Bob Mould), like Fake Names’ 2020 self-titled debut, these recordings were originally planned to be demos but turned out to be so compelling that the band decided to release it as the finished product. “We recorded twelve songs in five days and all of them are on the album,” Baker explains, adding that Lyxzén tracked his vocals in a single day. “One of the advantages of us all working at home is there's plenty of time to figure out what you're going to do,” Baker says when asked how the band were able to create such a fully formed album in the time some of their other acts have spent solely on pre-production.