New York – On Manhattan, the debut full length from Skaters, the band has honed a city into an album. Singer Michael Ian Cummings, drummer Noah Rubin, guitarist Joshua Hubbard, and bassist Dan Burke embody the kind of motion and energy that only in NYC can it make sense the way it does. These punks are hustlers, and they’re good at it. Influenced by the late 70s – early 80s punk scene in the city, the songs on Manhattan rush past like the subway, but if you get on the train it’s a pretty fun party. The record is an ode to the city they live in, the city that lends itself to the style and pace of the music. As MIC said in our last interview with them, “This is a band that formed in New York and drew all its inspiration from the pace and energy of Manhattan. This album is a fast account of the way we live… a taste at least.”

The guys of Skaters have all been bartenders in NYC, where witnessing or experiencing crazy scenarios is not hard to do. Right with opener “One of Us,” the album already sounds like a night out on the town, the adrenaline and the party vibe of the lower east side on a Friday night. The vibe of full-on energy of hustling hard and playing hard is captured on the super up-beat “Schemers,” with MIC declaring “I’ve got to let you know, I’ve got to feel it,” a call to get up and out and do something because the actions you take are all that matters when you’re trying to move forward with anything you want to accomplish artistically. Skaters deal with shallow well-off hipster kids in “To Be Young,” and “This Much I Care,” and also dip into the crazy frenzy of when the cops raid your building on “Deadbolt,” with MIC cleverly singing from the potential perspective of a wanted man “Who gave you the tip / was it someone I know / ain’t it always the rats / who bring the pigs to your door.”

Skaters make appropriate shifts in pace, energy, and style throughout the record, like being stuck in traffic. A cab ride conversation with a hilarious cabbie is literally recorded and tacked onto to end of “Nice Hat,” the most straightforward punk song on the album. Both “Band Breaker” and “Fear of the Knife” put a little Clash-style reggae into the flow, with “Band Breaker” in particular adding so many other eclectic elements it almost sounds like the guys were sitting in the studio trying out different sound effects and were like, “how much of this shit can we throw into one song and have it still be pretty cool?” The single “I Wanna Dance” is still one of their most recognizable tunes that everyone love at the live shows, and everyone dances regardless of if they know how or not. Full of good freak outs and settle downs, machinist drums and careening guitars, Manhattan drives hard until it screeches to a halt at the end, feeling exactly like how it feels to get home from another wild night full of experiences you can’t get anywhere else, and crash hard till you have to get up and hustle again for the next day. 

Manhattan is out February 25 on Warner Bros.