Philadelphia band Real Shocks already had a perfectly convincing demo out in 2024 but they really hit it out of the ballpark with their new 7" EP out in Stupid Bag Records. This is a wildly creative bunch of oldschool westcoast-ish hardcore punk rippers played by a present-day eastcoast-ish group, chock-full of catchy inspired hooks and quirky flourishes, that on one hand often feels like a slightly dumbed-down version of more recent hard-/artcore acts of the Rolex, Mystic Inane variety but also contains frequent flashes of the noise rock-ish, abstract and increasingly ethereal postcore-meets-art punk riffing and melancholic vibes of Atlanta cornerstones Wymyns Prysyn, Mother's Milk (fka Uniform) and Glittering Insects, the rougher end of the Nag output. Last but not least, i also appear to hallucinate a subtle undercurrent of cowpunk-ish energy á la Leche and Murderer here. Anyway, this is about as right up my alley as an oldschool-ish hardcore record is ever gonna get. The digital release has two bonus tunes that slap just as hard as the rest and are quite obvlously omitted on the 7" merely for length restrictions.