Here's a holdover from last week by a single Milwaukee dude (i guess) that i first planned to omit here but on closer listening turned out to be much stronger than i initially thought. A catchy, dreamy, melancholic blend of lo-fi noise pop, organ-and-synth punk unfolds on these tapes that also radiates a good deal of oldschool Flying Nun-type psychedelia.
Man, this has been a lame week as far as new music is concerned. I don't wanna withhold from you one standout release though, this little gem operating right in the middle between garage punk, hard- and postcore - kinda like a mix between Fried E/M, Modern Needs, Mystic Inane… with a spoonful of Drive Like Jehu thrown in at the right moments.
Following last year's somewhat more refined full-length debut, the second LP by Atlanta dark-/post punk group Nag feels more like a throwback to their earlier EPs - and i mean that in all the best ways. These songs are raw as fuck, the arrangements almost as sparse as you can possibly stretch the genre before it's gonna collapse. Why write a goddamn novel when all you need to get across is a single but rather desperate sentence?
Nice surprise indeed, this lathe cut 7" debut by some Austin duo making catchy noise somewhere in the realm of power- and garage pop. Especially the killer A-Side I'm Old will no doubt be a feast for fans of bands like Tommy & The Commies, Bad Sports, Radioactivity, Cheap Whine or Sonic Avenues.
This group of unclear provenance recently put out their second tape - once again via Wyoming cassette label Deluxe Bias - and just like the first one it's a massive lo-fi blast of noise that sounds a bit like The Stooges and MC5 reimagined as a hardcore band. A certein Bad Brains drive adds even more to the overall oldschool vibe and in the current scene, you might describe them as a slightly souped-up version of Vexx… yeah, makes perfect sense i guess. Their fuel's got 50% more X.
I already liked this Philadelphia group's first tape a lot but its successor raises the bar even higher for their own mixture of garage-, post- and dungeon punk that doesn't shy away from allowing quite a bit of very oldschool "heavy" metal into the mix - in regards to the movie just as much as the genre.
Some straight, simple, stupid, and super-effective garage punk fun made by some folks of the extended Vaguess, Useless Eaters, Fernando & The Teenage Narcs orbit. Has some Ex-Cult vibes, but primarily i'm reminded of australian groups like The Living Eyes, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Mini Skirt. Even a slight Saints/Radio Birdman feel is clearly present here.
It took the Portland, Oregon trio a few releases to get there, but their newest 7" is pushing all the right buttons for me with its no wave-infused as well as Gang Of Four-inspired danceable post punk, which in this particular case reminds me especially of Brighton group Austerity.
The recent recorded output by Los Angeles garage project Shimmer Bed is, to be quite honest, a bit too prolific for me to dive deeper into right now - which is why this excellent compilation tape put out by the spanish label Discos Peroquébien is such a welcome gift that made me aware of this dude in the first place. Over the span of a whopping 22 tracks we get to witness a remarkably diverse spectrum of sounds ranging from bedroom weirdo garage punk that might evoke the melodicity of Vaguess, the noise pop of Jah Hell and the playfulness of Dee Bee Rich, Nuts or Prison Affair, to psychedelic pop reminiscent Rat Columns or various eighties Flying Nun acts and inbetween al this, there's even time for some noisy post punk sketches.
New shit from this Kitchen People-affiliated Melbourne garage project. The A-side presents a sparkling power pop gem reminiscent of Liquids, Satanic Togas or Datenight, while the B-side continues the direction of the previous EP - the kind of quirky & snappy garage punk you might assiciate with the likes of R.M.F.C., Set-Top Box or Research Reactor Corp.