Album review: BODEGA injects new blood into punk rock on 'Endless Scroll'

Everything is at your fingertips. It's scary, surreal and super-connected. It's life in the social media age.

Some bands have tried to tackle this current background of consistent noise. The results have ranged from cynically ugly (Arcade Fire's "Everything Now") to depressing (Father John Misty's "Pure Comedy") to boring (everything Parquet Courts has done since its debut "Light Up Gold").

With all three examples, there is a heavy dose of old man yelling at the sky. It's as if these older acts are saying, "Get off your phone and listen to me tell you to get off your phone on this next song."

It's the most unrock 'n' roll move ever made.

At its most primal, rock 'n' roll invokes revolution. That the genre still relies on clips of The Clash, The Stooges and Jimi Hendrix to lead the call to arms is a sad and gross display of how that spirit has been commercialized, branded on T-shirts sold at Target next to piles of khaki pants.

BODEGA, a post-punk band from Brooklyn, New York, knows all of this all too well. On its debut album, "Endless Scroll," the group captures this sped up, overwhelming world with spiny guitar licks, jagged rhythms and heady lyrics.

On the first track, "How Did This Happen!?," singer Ben Hozie paints a portrait of a protest and all the attitudes surrounding it. "Stuck wading through a crowd of radical daughters/ Barricades armed by empty strollers/ Basic slogans to combat controllers/ See them dance from afar, to guitar on your shoulder/ As you smugly walk past, think: These people should be here regardless of outcome/ As you smugly walk past, think: Hey there's a half-off sale at the Barnes and Noble."

Dear God, that stanza alone is a 10.

This album is an honest display of the overwhelming amount of awareness we think we must have to survive these days. Sometimes, "Endless Scroll" is clumsy in its message, like on "I Am Not a Cinephile" or "Bookmarks." But the band gets stronger on songs that move past the preoccupations and into a more personal space.

On "Williamsburg Bridge," Hozie sings, "Well if you're telling me that freedom exists, I guess I could make it over that bridge." It sounds like the band is ready to plunge into something else. If it can stick to that goal, BODEGA could be the most exciting new rock 'n' roll band.

Lord knows, the genre, and we the people who love it so, could benefit from some new blood.