B Boys are from Brooklyn—both generally, and, in the case of the eponymous trio who write wiry punk songs indebted to theory and Black Flag in equal measure, specifically. Last year, the group released No Worry No Mind, their debut EP, and in June Captured Tracks will issue Dada, their first official LP. They’re the kind of dudes who’ll bash out a redliner, fabricate their own bio, and make references to linguistics and art that come across as purposefully oblique. Their charm is in how impossible it is to tell whether they’re joking or not.
Today, we’re premiering “Walking,” the second single off of Dada, which follows the excellent “Energy.” Where that song went full fist-pump, here B Boys pull that hand back, unpeel it into a palm, and hold it against their foreheads. The song bounces out like a version of “Sweet Jane” reimagined for a punk-rock prom, but it quickly shifts into itself, the internal tension building more quickly than the group allows it to escape. “I was thinking ’bout walking just to lose my way,” goes the chorus, and that sense of aimless agitation burns through what is an otherwise white-hot pop song. Or, as the band themselves put it, “‘Walking’ is a song about trying to be tender and acknowledging that masculinity is a prison, written after a whirlwind of emotions of being on tour.” Give it a listen below, and check out a grip of B Boys tour dates so you can help them work it out in person.
B Boys tour dates
Dada is out June 6 via Captured Tracks.
