I somehow totally overlooked this neat little EP of a Buffalo, New York group when it first came out last December. Starting off somewhat Oi!-meets-ramonescore-ish, it subsequently settles into more of a melancholy power pop-ish garage punk vibe with clear echoes of the likes of Red Dons, Radioactivity, Marked Men, Cheap Whine, Bad Sports, Sonic Avenues, Steve Adamyk Band or frenchies Telecult and y’all know i’m an incurable sucker for that kind of shit.
Album-Stream →
This filthy clump of hardcore punk is so fucking perfect in its deranged fuckedupness. Fun fact: To achieve his incomprehensible growl, the singer always gets prepped by way of a mild lobotomy and a mixture of amphetamines and bargain-bin booze. Then when it’s time for the show he gets a pair of socks shoved in his mouth, tied up, blindfolded and hung upside-down from the ceiling while getting rhythmically shocked by an electric fencer unit. Everyone can do it, you too!
Album-Stream →
Some groups make my unpaid blogging job pretty fucking easy, like this one from London. You see, group exists ‘cos dude likes suicide, simple as that. And as Alan Vega has no longer been walking among us for close to a decade by now, i’m not ever gonna complain about any competent acolyte keeping the fire burning. As far as these are concerned, you can certainly do much worse than this one – a perfectly adequate substitute i’m gonna say.
Yet another classy two-track single is the debut of Sydney group Game Set Match which excels in a fairly oldschool make of primitive and straightforward garage punk that brings back memories of acts like Ex-Cult, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The UV Race, early Teenanger, The Abandos, Sauna Youth or Manatees.
On their latest and – as far as i can tell – only 7″ so far, the sporadically active Massachusetts post punk / -core supergroup plays it just a bit noisier and rougher than we’d previously expect from them and i’m gonna say that suits me just fine. With the a-side coming across kinda like a lost Wipers outtake as performed by a fusion of Scratch Acid and Feedtime and the b-side being a perfectly competent cover of a truly iconic Strike Under tune, there’s no use arguing with this flawless little punk single.
While their demo from a while ago has been keeping afloat entirely on the strength of the majestic and ridiculous opening track Don’t Tussle With The Muscle, the Minneapolis group’s newest EP is a much stronger package overall, setting off three charges of heavily ’77-infused garage punk that is just about as simple and primitive as it could possibly get, yet perfectly functional as fun, dumb little rock’n’roll tunes, doing only the bare minimum and doing it right.
Begging Guitars releases May 23rd via Part Time Records.
Gimme Joy releases March 13th via Legless Records.
Sucks releases March 31st via Venti3.
