Warsh 
E.P. II 
High Trash Media 
Charlottetown, PEI 
RIYL: spuds; screaming; sweaty basement shows 

PEI’s self-styled ‘Potato Punks’—Charlottetown-based Warsh—deliver a six-minute onslaught of hardcore sludge on E.P. II, released last December. Echoing the regional slang the band is named after, E.P. II sounds like a local beer-tinged pre-pandemic show in a basement somewhere. You can easily imagine Warsh kicking off their set with the church bell opening of “Big Ego,” the EP’s longest track (clocking in at two minutes). Sophia Tweel’s distant, lo-fi vocals play well with their bandmate’s slight variations in timing, as heard on “Bro Code”—a track whose title makes me really wish I could parse out the lyrics—and EP closer “Program of Terror.” While there are no potatoes on E.P. II (that I know of), the album is just as consumable. 

If Warsh were a potato dish, they’d definitely be hash browns. Don’t ask me why.

Katerina Stamadianos