Cardiff’s Bad Shout already had a promising debut EP out in 2023 and an even stronger second one this summer, yet so far thay never managed to escape that dreaded “not quite there yet”-status in my humble opinion. Well guess what, Bad Shout are so fucking there now with their third extended play on which they alternate between well-worn bluesy oldschool garage punk smashers, hardcore outbursts and power pop-ish, ’77-infused earworms with that slight Dickies note to them, among other things.
It took them a couple years after their excellent 2019 Demo but at long last, here’s the debut LP of Berlin group Benzin and it’s every bit as good as you could possibly have hoped for, shifting the heavily garage-leaning sound of the demo towards more of a post punk feel while keeping the momentum going with speeds often veering into hardcore territory. This shit encapsulates some of the quirkier tendencies of previous Berlin groups like Rogue, DBR, Tanning Bats, Ponys auf Pump, Cold Leather, a synth-less Gym Tonic or the very first Puff! 7″. Equally, you may draw comparison to the Leipzig scene with Bands á la Ambulanz, Lassie, Onyon, Laugh Box and, speaking of saxons… i’d say a tiny bit of Pisse is hidden in there as well. There’s more to their sound than the obvious german influences though – among other things there’s an undeniable vibe of surfboard-wielding early west coast punk and hardcore of the Agent Orange, Germs and Adolescents ilk goin’ on here in addition to a more recent crop of hardcore-adjacent groups like Warm Bodies, Judy and the Jerks, Vexx, Itchy and the Nits.
More of that real belgian punk that’s totally not actually made by any dudes from Montreal or New York, pinky promise! Musically, this is their most mature, well-rounded effort to date, blending them undeniable eighties euro punk influences they like to wear on their sleeves with equal parts of Oi!, Post Punk, slight traces Death Rock of that same era. Of more recent phenomena, the best comparison i can come up with is a more primitive and melodic variant of US post punk cornerstone Institute of whom, i’ve heard, some dude is also totally not involved here.
This second EP by an Austin group consisting of, quite possibly, fully imaginary members save for some lone dude in his bedroom, hits all the right pain- and pleasure points of the nervous system with three burning dumpsters worth of primitive and raw-as-fuck three-chord garage- and fuzz punk behaving just about demented enough to please demanding connoisseurs of other stupid fucking shit á la Buck Biloxi, ISIS or Giorgio Murderer. Love it.
Don’t let the kinda standard surf rock intro fool you ‘cos what it leads into is actually a lot more exciting: Two effortlessly shredding garage punk tunes with a bit of a ’77 vibe to them, filled with catchy hooks on the inside and projecting sparkling melodic textures outward, all in all reminding me a bit of early Vaguess or that kickass Wild Rose demo from 2017.
