A few weeks ago, Bunktown Falls delivered on their promise in bringing us more banging tunes this summer: “Officer” is their second single released this year and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been waiting to download this to my phone since I heard it in Montauk Music Festival. It’s a catchy, feel-good tune your commute playlist has been missing.
In addition to the infectious chorus, my favorite part about “Officer” is the origin story. “The inspiration came from a show we played at the Speakeasy in Long Beach.” Bunktown Falls told me, “We were mid set and the officer from the street came and said we had to shut it down, we had other plans. Alex turns to Santo and said to just keep rippin’ and we came up with Officer’‘ on the spot!” In true Bunktown Falls fashion, creating a soundtrack for a situation that others would find annoying or stressful, is exactly why I absolutely love their music and personalities. “Life is too chaotic and full of stress at times” Bunktown Falls mentions, “all we aim to do is bring people some levity with some gnarly music, throw a rad party, bring everyone together and remember what it is we love about being alive.” We can all definitely take wisdom from them: if life’s trying to get you in a bad mood, just tell life good luck turning you down!
What I also really enjoy is how true the recorded track is to how they perform it live. You can notice this specifically towards the end, when each member of the band chant the track’s rally-cry “hey mister officer good luck you cannot turn me down” and even including a bit from Lou Alder’s Up In Smoke. Though when performing live Bunktown Falls does their own spin of the bridge depending on the venue and time, it’s still a nice easter egg for long-time Bunktown Falls fans.
“Officer” is the perfect banger to allow you to pause for a moment, remember not to take life so seriously, and in the words of the boys themselves “don’t give up when everything goes to shit”. New vocals addition Carl brings the perfect amount of guttural and emotional vocals to the spicy music flavor basket that is Bunktown Falls. Be sure to stream “Officer” on all music devices and memorize the words before hearing their set at Stattfest this week!