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.
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.
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.
Mat Williams' solo project Liquids has been around for a good while now and every new entry in his by now pretty substantial discography has been a pleasant, albeit inconsistent experience, as many of his releases felt like rather loose collections of material with varying degrees of quality. That's not the case at all for Life is Pain Idiot, his strongest collection of songs in quite a while. With Erik Nervous once again working his producer magic here, new stuff blends in perfectly with what i consider to be the definitive versions of songs which already appeared in some form on one of his previous releases.
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This Melbourne group's debut 7" pretty much hits the bulls eye at first try, setting off a flawless garage-driven, high-calories power pop extravaganza. Without doubt, admirers of Tommie and the Commies or Bad Sports, among others, will appreciate the shit out of this.
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Respected Los Angeles garage powerhouse Vinny Vaguess keeps things interesting. While his previous two longplayers turned out a bit mellower, leaning quite heavily into powerpop melodicity, his newest EP mixes things up again in somewhat unexpected ways by introducing quirky post punk elements, often making generous use of vaguely devo-esque synths. Speaking of the devil… with Lesser Of Two we even get a full-blown synth pop hymn, not dissimilar to some stuff Alien Nosejob did recently. Other points of reference might be Nick Normal, Andy Human and the Reptoids, Teenanger, occasional flashes of Ausmuteants. Everything works admirably here, in no small part thanks to the kind of excellent songcraft we've come to expect from this dude.
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New tunes by Sudbury, Canada's Tommy and the Commies. You should know what to expect by now: A bright and colorful spectacle made up of top notch quality power pop, a bit of garage and a whole truckload of buzzcocks-style straight and melodic punk rock, elevated by a punchy performance as well as some unerring songwriting skill.
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I'm not sure if Alien Nosejob currently exist as a full blown band, but at least for their second long playing effort, Jake Robertson (Ausmuteants, School Damage, Leather Towel, Hierophants, etc.) has been recording everything on his own. While the last few releases turned out to be a rather wild and unpredictable ride - touching on Power-/Jangele Pop, Synth Pop and Hardcore Punk among other things - Alien Nosejob's newest album is an unexpectedly consistent work mostly operating in a spectrum of sad power pop and more familiar Ausmuteants style garage fare, wrapped in a warm and fuzzy analog aesthetic varying from mid- to high fidelity. Without exception, these songs are top rate stuff, just classic Robertson at his best.
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What a beautifully deranged kind of mess, the second Album by Trashdog a.k.a. Andrew Jackson, the dude also responsible for Austin, Texas label Digital Hotdogs. I didn't expect a lot of normalcy here to begin with, but nonetheless i'm kind of astonished by the massive amount of top notch goodness scattered wildly across this record, especially after i found Trashdog's first effort to be of somewhat inconsistent quality. Roughly one third here consists of dumb jokes and various shades of fucking around. Another third turns out to be brilliantly weird and inventive songcraft in a spectrum of garage punk, power pop, synth-/electro punk and a tiny hint of glam. And as for the remaining third, i'm somewhat undecided in which of the first two categories i should file that stuff. The whole of it makes for an awesome, if at times overwhelming, disorienting roller coaster ride. Some kind of white album on stupid pills.
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Shit Giver's 2017 debut album left quite an impression on me with its ambitious and versatile vision of post punk, bursting with excentric ideas and unpredictable song structures. The L.A. group's first new music in almost three years doesn't fail to amaze and surprise once again. It's their melodic songwriting abilities that come into sharp focus here, taking shape as an irresistible mix of post punk, power- and goth pop, developing a catchyness i wasn't prepared for. Meaningless ignites some unexpectedly straightforward pop fireworks, complete with a borderline-cheesy sax solo, the kind of which a lesser song wouldn't survive, but in this case i can't help but percieve it as a well-deserved climax. Transition seamlessly continues their newfound love for gloomy pop, but also proves that Shit Giver haven't lost their taste for elaborate structures, either.
