The cover of Upchuck’s third release really makes a statement. It represents the rage that this Atlanta-based punk outfit expresses in a very visible manner. The title, one of the greatest ever when paired with this specific album cover art of a knife pointed at lead singer KT’s grills as she puts on a vicious smile, adds a sort of sinister irony: c’mon, the band really cannot be nice now, especially with what they’re portraying as the face of their music.
But there is no irony in this album (maybe a bit of tongue-in-cheek). The band is actually nice, because they have found a safe space within the album to “upchuck” their charged vitriol toward the current state of affairs, which wouldn’t be as nice if they chose to express what’s inside of them outside of art.
The music is “nice” too, in a relative sense. It displays defiance, without screaming aggression. Produced by Ty Segall and recorded at his residential studio in the desert in Texas, the music has a stoner-rock groove, even within the high-energy punk format of the songs. So even though the band follows the true-to-punk tenet of wrapping up tracks in under three minutes, the sticky guitars and groovy rhythm section are very satisfying musically.
You won’t find any quotable stanzas of profound poetry in the words here, with lyrics that are terse sentences serving ideas on a sample platter. But there is enough bite in the words for the band’s angst to permeate through your skull and into your brain.
And KT doesn’t even sound particularly angry! There is a cool swagger in her vocals, as if she’s got things under control. It is drummer Chris Salgado who is (delightfully) deranged when he sings. On the two songs where Salgado is the lead vocalist, singing entirely in Spanish, he sounds like an insane Jack Nicholson in The Shining, adding a rascally unhinged contrast to KT’s somewhat calm audacity.
I’m Nice Now is “punk” that is mature. Its music is simple but well-thought-out. Its dirty sound is deliberate. Its lyrics and singing are insane with a lot of sanity behind them. Above all, if it were a weapon, it would be lethal.