Respected Los Angeles garage powerhouse Vinny Vaguess keeps things interesting. While his previous two longplayers turned out a bit mellower, leaning quite heavily into powerpop melodicity, his newest EP mixes things up again in somewhat unexpected ways by introducing quirky post punk elements, often making generous use of vaguely devo-esque synths. Speaking of the devil… with Lesser Of Two we even get a full-blown synth pop hymn, not dissimilar to some stuff Alien Nosejob did recently. Other points of reference might be Nick Normal, Andy Human and the Reptoids, Teenanger, occasional flashes of Ausmuteants. Everything works admirably here, in no small part thanks to the kind of excellent songcraft we’ve come to expect from this dude.
Some chicago dude’s latest EP delivers four and a half short & sweet bursts of extra blown-out krauty spacerockin’ psychedelic garage fuzz ecstasy. Destruction Unit-meet-Chrome, Draggs collide with Dr. Mix & The Remix. Turn on, tune in and… run to your stereo and hit play again ‘cos the whole thing is only nine minutes long.
I tried hard to dismiss this Orlando, Florida project as just another cookie cutter DIY synth punk/-garage artifact of our times… with the first EP that was. The second one was able to sow some mistrust in my own judgement. Number three finally served as a reminder on how full of runny shit my dysfunctional lump of grey matter can be sometimes – so bad i wish someone would transplant an anus onto my head. Evolution, you’re such a terrible disappointment… These twelve songs are an incredibly fun synth punk ride overall, the kinda pop oriented variety, just getting progressively better with each new EP. Take a juicy bite if you can stand stuff like Trashdog, Warm Exit, Dot.com, Set Top Box, Power Plant, T.L.B.M., Spyroids.
New tunes by Sudbury, Canada’s Tommy and the Commies. You should know what to expect by now: A bright and colorful spectacle made up of top notch quality power pop, a bit of garage and a whole truckload of buzzcocks-style straight and melodic punk rock, elevated by a punchy performance as well as some unerring songwriting skill.
Promising and fun shit, this first digital single by some San Francisco group. Post-/art punk of the particularly quirky, playful kind that admirers of bands like Patti, Rolex, Reality Group or Emergency Contact will surely appreciate.
Already having a bunch of strong EPs under their belt, Mini Skirt of Byron Bay, Australia are now delivering their first LP. Of course they do have a few more bones to pick, finding expression in some of their most pissed off lyrics to date, while on the musical side of things, we get all the goodness familiar from their EPs and more… Garage Punk/Pub Rock somewhat similar to Dumb Punts, Pissed Idiots or WOD, that counterbalances its comparatively relaxed pace with a vigorous performance, this time even reluctantly expanding their stylistic palette with occasional flashes of oldschool late 80’s/early 90s indie rock.
Melbourne group Moth already had a decent demo out not too long ago, but this new set of tunes is so much stronger. This is your typical contemporary garage-/synth punk stuff, plain and simple… but also quite competently done, packing some serious punch and adding a slight psychedelic touch to the mix – otherwise roughly adhering to the Useless Eaters, Pow!, Flat Worms and Ex-Cult core formulas. You can’t go wrong with these.
On album number three Ventura, California garage punks Sweet Reaper seamlessly pick things up where they left off roughly two years ago with another strong batch of bittersweet, melodic bangers of some Wipers-esque flavor as well as varying degrees of similarity to more current acts, the likes of Cheap Whine, Radioactivity, Red Dons, Dadar.
Atlanta’s Nag have been a constant presence in the contemporary post punk scene for quite a while now, so i’m kinda surprised it took them this long to come up with their first long player. The surprises don’t end here. Having been kind of the genre’s bad boys – always a bit more rough and unkempt than most of their peers – we finally get to hear them in a comparatively hi-fi sound, stripping away some layers of fuzz and noise, instead revealing a sharpened rhythmical focus and a much diversified set of stylistic choices, drawing comparisons to various household names à la Negative Space, Rank/Xerox, Pretty Hurts, Diät, Knowso, Bruised or Exit Group.
Now that’s™ some potent shit coming out of poland, presumably. Equal parts hardcore- and garage punk, efficiently propelled forward by an ultra-simplistic drumming style giving the whole thing an almost cowpunk vibe, but also leaving plenty of room for the noise-laden sonic textures by the string torturing division to spread out – kinda like you might have heard in the past from Bands like Leche, Murderer, Yambag, Lux… maybe even a bit of Wymyns Prysyn hidden in there.
