Guy Morgan and the FT Crew play 'pop punk with a Midwest spin'

The "Guy" who fronts Guy Morgan and the FT Crew actually is named Nate. That much is clear.

Email correspondence suggests his name is "Nathan Comer," but for all intents and purposes, he is "Partee Nate" about town.

"First name: Partee. Last name: Nate," he insists.

But people familiar with punk music in Cape Girardeau know this already, as much as they know what to expect at a Guy Morgan show, most often at Pitter's, where they usually play.

"The simplest way to break us down is that we're a punk rock band through and through," Nate said.

And for about the past eight or nine years, they've become one of the most reliable and longstanding punk bands in town. The sweaty three-piece channels bands such as The Descendents, Suicidal Tendencies and The Ramones with Partee Nate's heavy distortion, Sean Kenney's frenetic drums and Dustin Woods' quick-staccato bass rumble.

"What we play is pop punk," Nate said. "Plus we have our own Midwest spin on it."

That spin, he said, comes from the old school rock 'n' roll that St. Louis (where the band plays often, and where their record label, Throwing Things Records, is located) helped create.

"You got your verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, guitar solo," Nate said. "We just play it a lot faster."

The band's music also tends to have another deviation from the SoCal model, Nate said: a splash of '80s heavy metal-like chuggy chord work and squealing harmonics here and there.

"I was growing up when grunge was cool, but I didn't feel like that was necessarily for me," he said. "It was the meaner, louder guitars like they had in the '80s. That's what I wanted to do."

But that's not to say the subject matter is darker or more aggressive. The band's goal in songwriting, he said, is more akin to a diary.

"Punks have been doing the same thing musically since the '70s and '80s," he said. "So really, for us sometimes, it starts with a great guitar riff. The lyrics are mostly about things that happen or having a good time. We don't get too political. Sometimes they can be serious, but they still come off as tongue-in-cheek."

Lots of their songs are about experiences the band has had while on tour, and they don't have any intention of calling it quits anytime soon.

"We'll always be putting out records. Always. No matter what the mainstream is calling 'punk,'" he said. "Guys with their swoopy haircuts and wimpy crap like that. We'll just keep chuggin' away and playing with our favorite bands."

Guy Morgan and the FT Crew's bandcamp site is at www.guymorganftcrew.bandcamp.com.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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