Home Front’s Hardcore Synthpop Makes Perfect Sense, Somehow

I'll be honest: I have no idea whether it's even a good idea to talk about Home Front as a hardcore band. They don't necessarily carry themselves as a hardcore band, and they don't necessarily define themselves as a hardcore band. (Home Front's Bandcamp tags include the probably-made-up genre name "bootgaze"; they do not include "hardcore.") They do move like a hardcore band onstage -- or, at least, some of them do. One of them remains parked behind a rack of synths and drum machines, but he rocks out the way people in hardcore bands rock out. In recent months, Home Front have gone out on tour with Fucked Up, Poison Rüin, and Alkaline Trio -- not hardcore bands, but not not hardcore bands. So maybe they're not a natural fit for this column, but they're not a natural fit for anything. That's one of the reasons that they're so cool.