The Sydney garage-/eggpunk powerhouse's newest record is actually more of a collection of scraps, demos, odds and ends left on the cutting room floor over the years but… damn! If this shit here represents Gee Tee's b-material, i'm gladly gonna eat up whatever c-list shit they've got lingering in the archives too. This is a brilliant record from start to finish and mandatory listening for any discerning connoisseur of catchy goodness in the realms of garage punk, fuzz- and power pop, all killer no filler!
Cincinnati group Vacation remain a rare zeitgeist-defying gem, once again delivering a brilliant new batch of bangers equally catchy and propulsive, to be located in the rough ballpark of Power Pop, Garage Punk, Noise Pop and oldschool melodic Indie Rock, brimming with a pervasive sense of joy and euphoria in the face of rough times ahead while never missing the mark thanks to their remarkable skill in crafting simple but effective, perfectly balanced and to-the-point little tunes they then like to blow up to larger-than-life cinemascope proportions.
This Detroit group made quite a bit of a splash already with a strong EP in 2022 and now they're throwing an even better LP at us, once again combining a bit of local (proto-) punk history with flavours of garage punk, hard- and postcore, calling to mind a bit of Nervosas in American Lies and Dollhouse in Kill Your Parents, while otherwise playing out a bit like a good cross-section of a bunch of garage/hardcore-hybrid groups like the somewhat more garage-leaning, KBD-influenced stylings of Launcher, Freakees, Liquid Assets and Mystic Inane as well as the more hardcore-heavy side with groups such as Imploders, Headcheese, Hood Rats, Alf and Cement Shoes.
Oh look, London garage-/synth punk solo crusader Tommy Cossack has expanded operations into a full band line-up and the result sounds absolutely brilliant and so much bigger, shedding some of its Lo-Fi eggpunk quirks in favor of a more potent, dense and focused attack while never lacking in terms of thrilling hooks, of which these songs are stuffed to the brim with, making for a compact and incredibly entertaining half hour of breathless energy and exitement that may rightfully be compared to the likes of Set-Top Box, Powerplant, Ausmuteants and Satanic Togas.
Eggpunk's eggiest idiot group's long-playing debut consists mostly of re-recordings of songs already known from his previous two EPs, with the added benefit of somewhat improved production values and thus lots of added oomph to their sound, making this the definitive collection of Egg Idiot tunes so far and certainly the most infectious dose of brain damaged fun you're gonna experience in the next thirty minutes or so… Awesome shit!
Yet another thoroughly compelling load of new egg-ish garage- and synth punk goodness comes to us by way of this crunchy split cassette featuring two Providence, Rhode Island groups. Jimsobbins are a duo comprised of Adam and Lucy. Is that the same Adam who's also in Balloon Thief? Plausible but unconfirmed. With the addition of vocalist Ella, they then transform into the trio Cindy7. Jimsobbins are the more typically eggpunk-sounding of the two groups, calling to mind stuff like Daughter Bat and the Lip Stings, Gee Gee, Billiam and Toe Ring… plus a slight shambolic touch of Neo Neos in Leopard. The latter tendency then persists throughout Cindy7's side, exhibiting even more of that scrappy DIY charm, with their opening track Gonna Break! even evoking a bit of an oldschool no wave vibe while the final two tracks charge things up with an increasing amount of chaotic hardcore energy.
A kickass debut EP by this Brooklyn, NY group. The opener No Recourse evokes a distinct mid-'80s to early '90s Dischord vibe á la Rites Of Spring, Nation Of Ulysses, Gray Matter… plus a hint of Drive Like Jehu or more recent groups like Wymyns Prysyn, Beast Fiend and Launcher. Fixate comes with a hard change of pace, mostly resembling the spirit of old australian punk and garage legends like X, Saints and God. Scraping Away then returns to the postcore stylings, somehow combining a bit of early Saccharine Trust with the proto-noise rock of Flipper.
Even in a busy week like this one (ya know, bandcamp friday and whatnot…), i just gotta mention this new digital two-track single by Tel Aviv synth-/eggpunk act Paulo Vicious ''cos if these two songs don't fuckin' rip then i don't know what does, mastering the neat trick of considerably slowing down things without ever evoking boredom, effectively filling the new gaps between the thumps and beeps with plenty more of interesting squeeks, groans and kablowies to an altogether animating overall effect.
Another quality release from that bastion of off-kilter punk and noise, Erste Theke Tonträger. Busted Head Racket is a group based in Newcastle, Australia centering around vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Arden Guff and in the past year has already made waves with a number of EPs, compilation appearances and split releases. Their long-playing debut now delivers another strong batch of odd little tunes of distinctly egg-ish qualities which manage to come across as equally catchy, quirky, rough and energic, kinda combining the traits of, say, Billiam and the hardcore attack of last year's Snooper LP, with further parallels to be drawn to such acts as Slimex, Daughter Bat and the Lip Stings, Set-Top Box and Ghoulies.
Here's yet another pair of moderately egg-related small fry in the form of two new digital (?) 2-track singles. First off there's Minneapolis garage punks Liquid Lunch delivering two excellent new blasts on a fucking holiday-themed release in fucking April which then again, i'd say is actually one of the most egg things possible to do. Then, there's also a new release by Melbourne DIY magician Billiam which unsurprisingly doesn't disappoint either. The title track indeed appears to take some cues from Jackson Reid Briggs and his current band Split System in particular.
