The Leipzig post-/garage punk scene never ceases to amaze, as Autobahns already did on occasion of their split EP with the also brilliant S.G.A.T.V.. Now here’s their full-length debut co-released by three usual-suspect labels from around the globe and this one’s a treat, folks! Right from the start there’s some strong Billiam-esque energy to these songs, moderately egg-ish garage punk smashers that also call to mind stuff like Tommy Cossack, Set-Top Box and further eccentricities of the Snooper, Beer or Prison Affair kind or maybe Germany’s very own Egg Idiot. Tellin’ Ya transports some of the best traits of recent Vaguess records into a more distinct eggpunk context. All the while, Autobahns operate as a super-tight unit here, expertly kicking up a hell of a storm while never losing their ironclad grip on their melodic sensibilities… this is some catchy shit all the way through, reaching its peak in the undiluted noise pop ecstasy of Loss Of The Rights.
Now this group has been a complete blind spot for me so far and as such, an unexpected and thoroughly enjoyable rabbit hole to dig into. Accordingly, for a group that has been around for over two decades already, this whole thing is a pleasantly old-fashioned affair showcasing a group that doesn’t have to take shit from anyone. Musically, this mostly carries the torch of predominantly australian punk royalty with the likes of Saints, Birdman, New Christs, God and Scientists looming large above these tunes. There’s also some amount of Cheap Trick-like power pop melodies to be found here as well though, plus occasional flavors of Wipers, Dead Moon, New York Dolls or 13th Floor Elevators. I’m pretty sure fans of Split System are gonna get a kick out of this shit as well, just as will those who miss such last-decade groups like Brimstone Howl and Apache Dropout.
One of the best kept secrets of the contemporary australian garage punk underground demonstrates its godlike potency once more in the form of two new digital singles amounting to three tracks in total, each one of those having its very own distinct vibe. I Wanna Be UR Simp sports a strong psychedelic flourish not entirely dissimilar to the likes of Mononegatives, Zoids, Corpus Earthling and later Useless Eaters, combined with the catchy garage pop of, say, Set-Top Box, Gee Tee and the likes. Prawn Party then plunders its way through an entirely different place and era, most in line with the current wave of pre-’77 New York revivalism as exemplified by Peace de Résistance, Jean Mignon and the most recent Institute LP but you might just as well find traces of The Drin’s kraut rock vibes and the catchy garage rockers of certain Alien Nosejob incarnations in there. TV Screen once again shapeshifts into the guise of both early New Zeeland Flying Nun-style jangly power pop á la The Clean and The Stones on one hand, and british DIY (post-)punk pioneers like The Mekons and Television Personalities on the other.
Excellent debut EP from this San Antonio, Texas group setting off seven blasts of pitch-black yet very much refined post punk. While the opening Track Progress Trap sounds to me as if the garage/noise rock/post punk hybrids of Flat Worms and The Cowboy were being fused to a bit of The Spits or Lost Sounds, the record subsequently settles into an ever slightly shifting aesthetic reminding me of numerous greats of contemporary post punk like Nag, Predator, VR Sex, Tube Alloys, Rank/Xerox, Public Interest and the early works of Institute, Diät und Marbled Eye. While this surely ain’t the apex of originality at this point in time, the group knows how to keep things moving and interesting throughout and most of the time these songs are every bit as good as any of the aforementioned acts.
This Sydney group already stirred up some waves not too long ago with a pair of strong EPs and this newest one is their finest one yet, operating in a golden zone between garage-/synth-/post- and psych punk that kinda bridges the gap between the garage-/post punk melancholia of weird outliers like Die TV and DBR, the garage primitivism of shit á la Buck Biloxi, Giorgio Murderer and the spaced-out psychedelic expanse of Zoids, Mononegatives, Mateo Manic, Silicon Heartbeat, Pow!, Cthtr or even some stretches of Electric Prawns 2’s monumental ’23 album Prawn Static For Porn Addicts.
