Strange beast, the debut EP of this group with members scattered across Australia and the USA (Sydney, Portland and Melbourne, more specifically), on which everything just feels a bit off... in a good way! Right frome the Intro there's an unmistakable Mission Of Burma- and Moving Targets vibe goin' on and echoes of further '80s oddities of the Really Red, Angst and Saccharine Trust variety. Also, there's some undercurrent of Sonic Youth-esque guitar harmonies and '90s Postcore elements á la Unwound, Drive Like Jehu or later Gray Matter work in unison with their more melodic counterparts like Chavez and Polvo, two Bands whose work also echoes heavily through the even stronger second half of this Record from Closer oneward, where their whole sound veers a lot closer towards melodic Seam- and Superchunk-infused Indie Rock with some additional traces of No Age and Swervedriver maybe? Anyway, this is some thorougly enjoyable shit.
Here's yet another vaguely hardcore-adjacent oddity by a group from Athens, Georgia whose music seems to bridge the gap between pitch-black mid-'80s hardcore and 90s sludgy AmRep noise rock as well as the latter genre's various proto stages that came before. Namely, i'm reminded quite a lot here of eighties Lo-Fi noise rockers Drunks With Guns but the obligatory Flipper and No Trend references apply just as well while in their more uptempo hardcore parts, there may be the occasional oldschool death rock vibe creeping in. This is so fucking up my alley!
This Philadelphia group's debut tape is kind of a rarity in this day and age as a post punk-adjacent record that stubbornly resists classification into any specific preexisting sub-niche, but you all know i'm gonna try anyway, right? The folk-ish americana feel of the opening track Full Speed Ahead (ironically one of the slower tunes here) evokes the widescreen drama of a Dead Finks record while the following three tunes retain much of that quality but also exhibit plenty of markedly different vibes not entirely dissimilar to the work of such present-day post punk staples like Tube Alloys, Corker, earlier Pyrex, Marbled Eye and, most of all, VR Sex, whose somber and dark energy may be the closest match of the bunch overall, but where that group's output was always marked by a layer of artificiality and clinical detachment, these tunes feel a lot more rustic, grounded and thoroughly lived-in.
Marseille post punkers Catalogue have been around roughly as long as this blog and so far have been a constant and reliable presence that pops up every now and then with a new batch of tunes that, at this point in time, you may describe as pleasantly old-fashioned with their borderline motorik electric beats, fairly straightforward song progressions, vicious grooves and catchy hooks. And while it should be obvious they're not gonna reinvent the wheel in 2025, i gotta say that newest EP of theirs once again presents them from their best side with a sound very much of their own that still doesn't feel like they're repeating themselves, still able to elicit new facets and quite a bit of variety from their well worn-in genre formula.
Chicago's Omniwhores have been fucking around in the noise rock-, post- and art punk niches for many years now but never have they hit the spot for me as much as on their newest EP Sucker Face, on which they arrange their moving parts like the monotonous electric beats, buzzsaw guitars, sharp basslines and a battery of weird-ass samples it appears - all of which have been present on previous releases - in a way that comes together in a much more organic and seamless way, a mixture that mainly reminds me of such '80s-to-'90s noisemakers as World Domination Enterprises, Braniac, Royal Trux and Butthole Surfers in one way or another.
Australia's garage punk whizz kids are at ist again with a new EP which presents them going all-in on the monotonous acid-rockin', psyched-out side of their sonic spectrum, though you can make a clear distinction here between the first two tunes, having a more minimalist formula and darker tone reminiscent of groups such as Mononegatives, vintage Oh Sees and Pow!, and the following two tracks, which i'm gonna say are the real jewels on here (though the other two are perfectly accomplished pieces in their own right) and add a more melodic, albeit deeply melancholic vibe to the mix through which flows what you might describe as a classic dreamy synth wave quality. Good shit, as always.
This Vancouver group creates a delightful and eccentric blend of fuzzed-out, garage-infused oldschool indie rock, post- and art punk on their debut EP with the opening tune Running and Running having much of an early Woolen Men or Shark Toys vibe, while Dud reminds me a lot of Volcano Suns. In Roundabout, some '80s Nomeansno appears to collide with a classic cowpunk vibe. The closing track Anyone Anywhere has certain Scratch Acid-meets-Jawbox feel goin' on and there's no denying the whole EP also has some faint Mission Of Burma background radiation detectable.
Hamilton, Ontario group Corpus Earthling mad quite a splash at least in my own backyard with their 2024 The Glove LP and followed up on that with another neat EP and a whole LP full of cover tunes. Their newest EP of original songs has yet another excellent batch of spaced-out psych punk tunes for us that on one hand sound inspired by old art punk groups of the MX-80, Chrome and Métal Urbain variety but on the other, also fits in quite well with a number of contemporary groups like Pablo X, Stdees, Zoids, Silicon Heartbeat, Mateo Manic and Thee Hearses.
New fodder for soft-hearted eggheads comes from a (probably) Providence, Rhode Island based dude or possibly duo, delivering five first-rate fluffy and sugary power pop anthems in a modest, unpretentious eggpunk-ish guise quite similar to the likes of Gonk, Power Pants, Gee Tee, Music For Microwaves, 1-800 Mikey and Rude Television, with the song material itself being the main attraction here, never ceasing to amaze in its simple, straightforward pop glory.
The Beta Máximo dude's new synth-driven project Sonic Youth Of Today shapes up to beome a tireless tune factory just as prolific as his former thing. EP number three kicks things off with a neat cover version of the greatest fake punk tune ever put to tape and probably one among the essential eggpunk foundational texts, Village People's Food Fight, but the real meat of this EP are once again its three original tunes which are simply synth punk at its very best, every bit as throbbing and propulsive as they're irresistible in their catchyness while carrying the unmistakable signature of its creator.
