Thee Alcoholics – Turn On The Radio
Bear Bites Horse Sessions releases November 1st via Rocket Recordings.
The Antics – Masked
The Antics releases October 18th via Rack Off Records.
Reckless Randy – Speed/Babies
New Jersey garage freak Reckless Randy first came into my sight with 2022’s neat self-titled debut LP and has since then released another strong EP. On this new (mini-)LP he once again ups the game considerably for what is hands down his most fully realized record to date as is best exemplified by the couple of tracks already known from previous releases, being given a thorough makeover and adding lots of punch on this one. An invigorating caffeine boost of super catchy garage- and synth punk alternating somewhere inbetween the sonics of the classic The Spits school, Die TV (who previously also played the drums on Randy’s records, it appears), Sick Thoughts, Buck Bilixi and Kid Chrome.
Album-Stream →The Hammer Party – Fever Dreams
Almost exactly six years after their debut LP, we finally get to hear some new shit from Houston’s The Hammer Party which, sadly, is also group’s swan song. Or rather, the band appears to have been disbanded years ago already and these are their final recordings which have been re-mixed and put up on bandcamp at long last, documenting the group at the height of their powers. On here, their songs have acquired more of an earthy and sinister quality imposing a new layer of muck even on the couple of tracks previously known from their first LP. There’s no lack of propulsion and compelling hooks either, as exemplified by the the 1-2-punch of Antidepressants and E.M.B.R.Y.O. in which lots of folk-y strumming lays the foundation for an impressive explosion of catchy melodies. As before i sense a similar melancholy quality to Atlanta groups Mothers Milk, Wymyns Prysyn and Uniform while in other moments, the likes of Sievehead and early Low Life don’t seem too far off either.
Album-Stream →Pisse – Dubai
What’s there left to say about, like, the only german-language band that matters right now pretty much? The guilty conscience of german DIY punk has released yet another batch of excellent and excentric new tracks in their one-of-a-kind fusion of equally pissed and quirky post-, garage- and synth punk, unceremoniously dumped on Bandcamp as has always kinda been their modus operandi, but also slated for a vinyl release via Phantom Records pretty fucking soon™.
Album-Stream →Deformative – Fugue
Since last year’s already perfectly enjoyable self-titled EP, this L.A. group or project has definitely consolidated and streamlined their operation into a decidedly more impactful, concentrated attack of electrified punk inbetween the parameters of garage-, hardcore- and eggpunk that feels to me like a weird frankenstein bastard fusing together the relentless forces of, say, Arse and 2 Stroke, the noisy fuzz-/garage punk of S.B.F. and whatever weirdness that Zhoop/Djinn/Brundle/RONi etc. guy is up to right now.
Album-Stream →Lohn Der Angst – Untergang Vom Untergang
The second EP by Berlin duo Lohn Der Angst is pretty much a seamless continuation, if gradually refined, of what we’ve heard on their first cassette already which is a glorious celebration of repetitive synth punk that on one hand distills the core ingredients of Screamers, Units, Visitors, Nervous Gender, Minimal Man or the unavoidable DAF down to their bones, while also having a constant kraut-y motorik foundation to them over which the spirit of Conny Plank looms large, all of it consolidating into some weird sort of alternate-universe krautrock Suicide.
Album-Stream →Fantasma – Single 2024
The New York group follows up on their brilliant 2023 demo with a no less exciting new digital single whose two songs are hardly enough to satisfy my thirst for more of their melancholia-soaked post punk blown-up into a wide open landscape of delicate and complex structural foundations under a rich surface layer saturated with colorful, shimmering texture and detail. Just as on their demo, the closest comparison i can come up with is NYC’s very own post punk sensation Straw Man Army but there’s more than that going on here, especially in the second track Onde Eu Estou? which is carving out its own path forward with a folky undertone kinda reminiscent of both oldschool Angst and more recent NZ group Trust Punks or their Berlin-based quasi-successor Dead Finks.
Class – Scared To Care
A Healthy Alternative releases October 4th via Feel It Records.
Frvits – Young Jazz
Eat Fruits Piss Rocks releases September 27th via Slovenly Recordings.
