Prince Daddy & the Hyena : Hotwire Trip Switch
Back in 2022, when Prince Daddy & the Hyena dropped their previous, self-titled effort, frontman Kory Gregory mentioned in an interview with yours truly that the goal for Prince Daddy moving forward was to write music that hopped with such dizzying fluidity between tone and genre, between fast and slow, between quiet and loud, that the dominant feeling would simply be one of whiplash; “unpredictability is part of the DNA—that whiplash feeling might be what Prince Daddy is,” he explained. Now, four years later, an obvious question presents itself; have these lofty aims been realized in their latest record, Hotwire Trip Switch?
The immediate answer seems to be, “no, not quite.” But just as immediate should be the addendum to this answer, which is “but that doesn’t really matter. Like, at all.” That’s the thing about being a Jack of all trades—rather famously, it makes you a master of none. But Prince Daddy’s fourth album certainly couldn’t be described as amateurish.
By and large, the twelve tracks on Hotwire Trip Switch orbit quite tightly around a distinctly ‘90s-sounding pop punk and alt-rock vibe. Songs like “24-03-04_Birthday_B4, “Sure Could (A Random Exercise In Life-Altering Party Fouls,” and “WTEN” all sound very much cut from the same cloth as peak-era Green Day (the title of track 8, “SHIT SHOW or Boulevard of Soaking Dreams,” leaves little doubt that this band ranks among Prince Daddy’s greatest influences). “Oh, Donna,” meanwhile, has definite shades of blink-182. What really makes the album stand out, though, is that, through all of this, everything still sounds irrefutably like Prince Daddy & the Hyena.
Wearing your influences on your sleeve doesn’t mean you can’t develop and express your own style, and style is something that Prince Daddy have in spades. Although it would be a stretch to say that the album has so much variety that the aforementioned “whiplash feeling” is the only constant, it’s absolutely true that the band are unafraid to muddy the waters of genre just enough to keep the audience on their toes. We’re anchored to a punk sound—there’s no question there—but there are plenty of twists and changes along the way to keep the music feeling fresh, and the freshness feeling effortless.
“NQA,” for example, treats us to skittish riffs that thud and stutter through the song, and verses laden with the ear-splitting wailing of guitar feedback—but, once we hit the bridge, we find this ragged, distorted pummeling wrestling for space with a sound that’s more befitting of an old fashioned child’s nursery rhyme, all radio crackling and xylophone twinkling. Closing track “Pinch Me” is an invigorating, melodic-thrasher of a song whose barrelling punk energy is complemented by an endearingly tinny 2-step drum ‘n’ bass sample that kicks the tune off and reappears throughout to heighten the sense of restlessness. “30days30days30days”—one of the album’s strongest offerings—sports a snappy stop-start riff and, deep, growling bass tone that’s far more funk-rock than punk. That is, until the very end, when the song builds up and explodes into a cathartic climax of D-beats and squealing feedback.
Something that Hotwire Trip Switch never lacks for a moment is an irrepressible, frenetic, desperate energy—it’s present throughout, even during the album’s quieter, more subdued moments. One could pontificate on the exact qualities and nature of this energy for hours on end, but the most concise way (perhaps the only real way) to describe it is thus; it’s the sort of shit that makes you want to jump around. Hotwire Trip Switch makes you want to jump around until it’s over, and then it makes you want to play it back from the beginning again and jump around some more. That’s something the world will always need, and when it’s done with all the character and attention to detail shown by Prince Daddy & the Hyena, all the better.
Label: Counter Intuitive
Year: 2026
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