Following up on their incredible 2021 demo, this Copenhagen group delivers an equally exciting debut full length. On one hand, this sounds vaguely familiar as the local legends Lower and (early) Iceage have sure left their mark on Pleaser's music - having a similar appeal of larger-than-life drama tangled up in chaotic and emotional no-holds-barred performances - in addition to lesser known Copenhagen groups like Melting Walkmen, Echo People and Spines. But then again, Pleaser totally hold their own owing to top-notch song substance and plenty of neat little surprises like some black metal flourishes in the instrumental The World Says Its Name, Morricone stylings and a Murderer-esque psychedelic cowpunk haze in Drive of Distress while Light and Fire and This Is How I Die have some distinct Poison Ruïn vibes to them. Last but not least, in The Dream, a good bit of Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty collides with some 90s Leatherface or Samiam vibes as well as somewhat younger noise pop acts á la Star Party, Times Beach, No Age, Male Bonding or Joanna Gruesome.
An unexpected new EP of the fabulous Red Dons, whose mastermind Daniel Husayn apparently has, in recent years, been mostly busy with mastering great tunes rather than playing and recording such. So now here we have the first new material in close to six years of the originally Portland-based group . It's among their most solemn, moody and quiet stuff so far and the gamble pays off just admirably thanks to their unwavering songwriting excellence, an unbending performance and that certain harmonic sensibility that is very much their own.
I totally overlooked this thing the first time around, so i'm glad that the Florida label Xtro is giving it a second spin, finally succeeding at bringing this Haarlem, Netherlands group to my attention. To make it short: This shit is some stupid, fun and shambolic oldschool garage punk delight mostly reminiscent of other euro acts like Dadar, Shitty Life, Mitraille, Moron's Morons and Itches.
A ridiculously appealing and thrilling work, the debut LP by this Los Angeles Group. Elaborate and intricate constructs of dark, song-oriented post punk with some psychedelic undercurrents, totally timeless and yet carrying the hallmarks of so much of what has kept me and this blog busy in the past decade-plus. Wire circa Chairs Missing and the '60s Pink-Floyd-isms of Paint Thinner or The Blinds come to mind in epic pieces like Blooding, Slang Word and the title track Magnetic Point while Apathy, at least in the beginning, smells a bit of Membranes, Swell Maps, early Mekons, '80s The Fall and Desperate Bicycles. Jubilee somehow evokes the combined traits of a trifecta of Atlanta groups - Nag, Predator and Wymyns Prysyn. I just can't stop namedropping shit really as i'm reminded so much more awesome stuff - think the likes of Marbled Eye, Waste Man, Public Eye, Institute, Rank/Xerox, Public Interest, Negative Gears, VR Sex, B Boys, Creative Adult, Pyrex… this is dense shit throughout!
Swedish label Push My Buttons brings us the full length debut of this swiss group, which also presents their strongest set of tunes so far and their sonic vision at its most realized. That means: a deviously catchy dopamine rush of glitzy wave-ish synth- and garage punk smashers - exquisite sugary goodness echoing the likes of Wristwatch, Digital Leather, Sex Mex, Teledrome, Powerplant, The Gobs, Shrinkwrap Killers, Stalins Of Sound and Videodrome.
This Oshkosh, Wisconsin group is cooking up a variety of inventive and adaptive anochronisms roughly in the realms post punk and postcore, garage punk and classic '90s indie rock, coming off as refreshingly out-of-place and -touch in today's landscape. Some '90s Dischord-meets-Touch and Go feel is going on in tracks such as Phthalate Mates and the groovy psychedelic closing epos Clumsy Ascetic. A hint of Protomartyr in Locks Fasten, psychedelic flourishes in The Delivery and hints of Swervedriver in songs like Radio Static. Further, at different points, you might be reminded of recent post punk/-core acts like Batpiss, Stuck and Bench Press, groups on the intersection of garage- and post punk like Tyvek, Parquet Courts or Flat Worms in addition to groups on the more melodic and jangly edges of post- and art punk á la Gotobeds, Sleepies, Tape/Off and Shark Toys.
This Sydney group has never disappointed and neither do they on their newest top-secret EP, so secret in fact, that even the song titles shall remain a mystery for the time being. What i can tell you though is that this thing once again fucking slams - another perfect run of lo-fi power pop, garage-, fuzz- and eggpunk. Just don't tell anyone, okay?
Feel It Records (along with Urticaria Records and Future Shock Recordings who are releasing this thing on cassette) brings us yet another strong post punk record with this Cincinnati group's debut LP which, while mostly treading on fairly familiar ground for longtime observers of this space, has also plenty of variety and the well-crafted songs to make it stick. An absolute no-brainer for fans of VHS, Criminal Code, Pyrex, Rank/Xerox, Schedule 1, Sievehead or Marbled Eye.
This group's second cassette on Impotent Fetus or Down South Tapes or whatever it's called this week, considerably one-ups their previous one in terms of undiluted fury while carrying across all the traits we've come to expect from that label's output - rough and grimy as fuck yet unexpectedly catchy at the same time. A perfect storm of garage- and KBD-infested hardcore primitivism.
A good four years after an insanely enjoyable debut LP of this Berlin group, we finally get another taste of the same, fairly quirky yet expertly propelled synth-, garage- and post punk goodness sure to delight admirers of stuff in the vein of, say, Belly Jelly, Puff, Dummy, Ausmuteants, Quitter, Liquid Lunch, Ghoulies, Diode or Spotting.
