What an effortlessly ass-kicking affair that is, the new tape by Winston Hightower and his new-ish crew, expanding their 2023 debut EP with four new tracks. Equally out-there and propulsive, these tunes cover a decent spectrum of fuzz-laden noise spread out inbetween the cornerstones of eccentric garage punk á la UV Race, Tyvek or Shark Toys, 2010s (proto-) egg punk of acts like Hobocop, early Skull Cult, and more recent liabilities in the vein of Print Head, Erik Nervous and that newest Billiam 7″. That shit rips, in other words.
Here’s yet another kickass Billiam record once again delivering the goods of quirky-ass egg-ish garage punk in four tunes that nicely balance the comfortably familiar with, as always, plenty of novel ideas and unexpected detours. To me the absolute standout here are the pulsating post punk grooves of Planned Obsolescence but New Wave is an absolute wrecker too. Essential Feedstock Oils feel a bit like a welcome throwback to the very early days of Billiam and it’s just as glorious seeing Robbie Thunders’ 2023 insta-classic Houston We Have Rock being given its due in an absolutely vigorous cover rendition.
Excellent new shit, the debut EP of this Nottingham, UK group whose style feels kinda fluid, evading categorization as a whole even if the isolated components feel fairly familiar, the most immediately striking ones being the eggpunk-related eccentricities of Snooper, early Skull Cult, Busted Head Racket, Clarko on one hand and the considerably rougher weirdness of Warp, Beef, Scud on the other while at times even approaching the unpredictable off-the-rails eclecticism of Pressure Pin, Checkpoint or TY.
Not many new things to say about these belgian garage punks’ most recent EP as they kinda stick to their basics, which also means there won’t be any negative surprises when they do what they’ve always done best, chunrning out a nonstop barrage of simple but ultra-catchy and forceful garage smashers that make you wanna join a satanic cult or pet a cute dog or set fire to a hippie or go on tour becouse fuck you! No use arguing with that i’ll say.
Now that’s one glorious first offering from Iowa City punks God’s Hand and it’s a mystery to me how i could have missed this 7″ when it first came out in May already. Remodelled, the opener of the two-track single feels kinda like an amalgamation of folk-infused post punk acts of the Volcano Suns, Angst, Fire Party or Sebadoh variety, maybe a hint of Strike Under, with the comparatively more recent, melodic garage punk goodies of early Woolen Men. The second tune then continues the trend of spanning both earlier and more recent punk history, this time feeling like a fusion between the post punk and proto-postcore of Minutemen, Saccharine Trust, Mission Of Burma and Really Red with the contemporary landscape of varyingly anarcho-influenced, noisy post punk by the likes of Marbled Eye, Institute, Corker, Sarcasm, Tube Alloys or Warm Red.
We’re already two-and-a-half releases deep into Fog’s discography here, though a quick glance over the New Zeeland group’s previous LP/EP immediately reveals substantial improvements on their newest one. Although their basic ingredients of contemporary post punk and a hint of anarcho don’t bring anything new to the table in 2025 and may rightfully be compared to such groups as early Institute, Pyrex, Corker, Nag, Criminal Code and such, there’s also no denying that these songs are without exception expertly crafted blasts of grainy and underexposed noise with faint flashes of melody throughout, all the moving parts feeling a lot more deliberately arranged and refined than anything they’ve done previously.
Ever since Lysol rebranded themselves as Fan Club, with it came a considerably more traditional, straightforward garage punk sound that so far never hit quite as hard for me, always just a bit too much on the rather basic, traditional, dad rock-ish side of things. Their newest one now feels a lot like the timeline has been reset back to about 2021, right around the peak of their previous hard-/garagecore era and i couldn’t be happier about that ‘cos let’s be real here, if there’s one thing i surely won’t get exited about in 2025 it’s yet another bloodless, The Hives-style garage “revival rock” record. That shit already sounded pretty fucking stale just a couple years post-Y2K and i’m sure not gonna muster up any patience for it today.
