A sonic experience wonderfully out of touch with the zeitgeist, crafted by some Bellingham, Washington group. Prime influence here seems to be a whole battery of early-to-mid eighties, loosely SST and Touch & Go-connected stuff - on the more strummy, folk-infused side of things admittedly, but never afraid of spontaneously morphing into short bursts of hardcore punk either. Most obvious amoung those influences would probably be shit among the lines of Angst and Meat Puppets, early Dinosaur Jr. and, secondarily, U-Men, Mudhoney and 80s Scientists, some very slight hints of Dicks and Wipers. Or alternately, you might think of more recent Acts like early Milk Music, Dharma Dogs, Chronophage and Damak.
A new LP by that finnish group with way to many guitar players… dunno, i think 666 was the number last time i counted. Here, the band is shifting their sound increasingly into a psych rock direction. Especially in TJ they're diving headfirst into Space Rock territory and the effort pays of admirably. In other places, they stay true to their brand of melodic indie rock, fuzz punk and noise pop with echoes of No Age, Wavves, California X, Happy Diving and some early The Men, which they then infuse with sprawling guitar drones reminiscent of Glenn Branca and 80s Sonic Youth.
An overflowing bucket of joy, the newest LP(ette) by some duo from Montreuil, France, generating a mixture melodic of garage punk, oldschool indie rock, fuzz- and jangle pop reminding me of a diverse group of more-or-less recent acts á la Dumb Punts, Woolen Men, Hermetic, Landlines, The Exbats, Tape/Off… or maybe a more down-to-earth P.S. I Love You, aswell as old indie rockers of the Superchunk, Archers Of Loaf variety. This record serves as a perfect reminder that you don't need to stage a huge spectacle if you just deliver on the melodies that stick.
Wow, i didn't really expect this to happen. A good seven years after the group's sorta classic LP The Battle Of Brisbane we finally get another album by what at this point appears to exist as more of a solo venture by vocalist Matt Kennedy. His singular sound and vision in the realm of post punk, noise rock and that unlikely folk-y undercurrent comes accross as sharp and uncompromising as ever though, appearing beautifully out of step with the zeitgeist.
it took them a while but finally this Austin, Texas group's debut album has reached our shores and oh boy, is this a rare spectacle wildly surpassing any expactations i might've had for this one. Their sound is clearly and heavily inspired by certain parts of the SST Records era, prime among these being the folk-/americana-infused punk rock of Angst, early Meat Puppets and Minutemen while at the same time you might find bits and pieces of Saccharine Trust, early Dinosaur Jr. or Mission Of Burma in there and in more recent years, certain aspects of this lineage have been kept alive by a diverse cluster acts such as Milk Music, Chronophage, Dead Finks, Dharma Dogs and The Molds. Or Woolen Men, just maybe, if you stretch your imagination a bit.
The full-length debut of this Tokyo group kinda plays out like a round-trip through some of the most jangly and melodic sections of late eighties to nineties indie rock, noise pop, post- and emocore, conjuring up the spirit of groups like Polvo, Superchunk, Unwound, Bitch Magnet, Lync, Dinosaur Jr. and many more, with the occasional flash of Slint thrown in for good measure and some shoegaze flourishes particularly of the Swervedriver variety - all of that bottled up using fittingly rough lo-fi production values. An altogether rare and refreshing thing these days, at least in its raw and undiluted form as on display here.
Damn, i thought i was done blogging for the week and then this unexpected little gem of crude and shambolic noise by a Budapest group crops up last minute, their sound striking me as a peculiar fusion of oddball garage punk in the Eddy Current Suppression Ring and UV Race vein with similarly weird acts in the post punk and oldschool indie rock field such as Treehouse, Kitchen's Floor, The Molds and City Yelps.
I almost overlooked this beauty which appears to have been out for a couple months already. Knoxville's Ex-Gold had put out a delightful debut EP in 2018, a couple of whose songs have also been re-recorded for this new one while the new tracks seamlessly continue the excellence of their debut. That means more quirky powerpop and garage punk with both a slight '77- and an oldschool indie rock touch. The best comparison i can come up with right now are UK wisecrackers Proto Idiot but fans of stuff like Tommy and the Commies, Bad Sports, Radioactivity, Sweet Reaper, Corner Boys or Steve Adamyk Band should also get a kick out of this.
Wow, this group from Borée, France is juggling a shitload of different styles with striking confidence on their debut album. The thing starts out with a short, straightforward, simple blast of hardcore punk, then has them cycling through a wide array of styles including forceful postcore, hard rockin' upper-mid-tempo garage rock/-punk, groovy angular post punk and even some vaguely Pixies-esque, surf-infused oldschool 80s indie-/alternative rock. All of this they pull off with ease - there's not a single weak link on this record. Impressive shit all the way through!
Once again stupid me was way too late noticing that a new record by Cincinnati, Ohio's pop wizards Vacation has hit the shelves via Salinas Records, repeatedly proving their knack for crafting refined jewels of melodic noise at the intersection of oldschool nineties-style indie rock, graceful power- and noise pop. This shit is catchy as fuck without ever getting too formulaic or predictable. A rare breed these days and even more rarely does it ever come across as powerful and flawlessly executed as here. An album of twelve hits and zero misses as for this group, "pretty good" simply doesn't cut it.
