I like to fool myself into thinking that i actually don't have much a natural inclination towards raving fanboy-isms and try to avoid these kind of things here as good as i can, but this is one of the rare occasions where i'm just plainly unable to contain my euphoria for such a singular group that has sent such insane waves through the garage punk scene and basically set new benchmarks for catchy pop tunes with a deep and unique sense of melancholy, and all that that after the group's Jeff Burke and Mark Ryan had previously already established themselves as invaluable garage punk luminaries by fronting another essential genre mainstay, The Marked Men. Right from the start, Time Won't Bring Me Down strikes me as yet another instant classic of the ultra-classic Radioactivity school and Watch Me Bleed radiates that same familiar and unique feel before This One Time slows things down for the first time and sets the tone for much of what's to come on this record, which more than ever leans into the group's calmer, moodier side and an almost classic power pop vibe that in parts should feel familiar already to those acquainted with the Jeff Burke-penned tunes on the two Lost Balloons LPs while there's still enough high energy rockin' out goin' on to also please all fans of previous Radioactivity records. Now, for most lesser groups, going slow for much of an album is usually a bad idea and a recipe for boredom and it truly takes some superior capabilities in songwriting and arrangement to pull that shit off successfully. Well, cue Jeff Burke, one of the the most accomplished songwriters of the punk scene alive today, whose unreal craftsmanship never falters even once on what might actually be the greatest Radioactivity record to date. But honestly, in a discography as immaculate as theirs, it's actually kinda futile trying to pick a favorite.
Now this London group is kind of a rare beast in this day and age in that they not only lean all-in on early postcore and first-wave emocore circa mid-eighties to mid-nineties with groups such as Rites Of Spring, Moss Icon, Drive Like Jehu, eary Unwound, Squirrel Bait... you name it, while also absolutely holding their own in the present with well-balanced and fleshed-out song structures and arrangements rather than coming off as yet another bloodless rehash of the genre's most basic signifiers. Now there's two possible ways you're gonna react to these words. Either you've long ago acquired a compulsive dislike for anything even remotely touching on *mo subgenres, which is very likely if you've first encountered the genre in the late '90s or later and i can't really fault you for that, given what terrible things that were gonna come out of it roughly from then on. Or maybe you are well aware that there's been a lot more to the divisive subgenre in its early days, long before it entered its now thoroughly meme-ified cliché era. And in case all of that sounds just like latin to you now, i'm gonna invite you to maybe discover a bit of the unlikely creative spark and unleashed energy much of the pioneering generation had in common. Anyway, this is good shit right there and may be as good a segue as anything towards discovering the mostly still untarnished *mo and *core shit of the olden days.
A ridiculously impressive debut LP from this Tokyo-based group that unleashes a perfect storm of melodic but equally prouplsive noise pop and garage punk with an unpredictable, freewheeling creative energy at its core with no two songs sounding quite alike but everything feels as if made of one piece nonetheless, cycling through nine iterations of catchy noise that kinda alternates between the more straightforward sonic spaces of, say, Dark Thoughts, Sonic Avenues, Bad Sports or early Terry Malts on one hand and the way more incalculable and freakish bursts of melodic ruckus most recently heard from Eye Ball and The Dumpies on the other side of that equation.
If you're yearning for more of the awesomeness brought about by Stunted Youth's tracks on the all-around incredible Save Our Children / Stunted Youth split LP, there's some good news for you as this debut LP by Memory Ward of Phoenix, Arizona scratches a quite similar itch of artsy and unpredictable hardcore punk very much at odds with the kinda meh standards often associated with the genre. Maybe Memory Ward don't (yet?) reach quite the adventurousness and subtle melodic brilliance in direct comparison, but most of the goods are in place and look pretty fucking good - the eccentric song structures, the abrasive buzzsaw guitars soaring over an unhinged performance... this is quality shit! Not satisfied with just playing very hard and fast, these folks put some actual freakin' musical ideas into their songs, which by itself already sets them apart from 99% of hardcore acts anyway.
Considering the rave reactions i've heard so far about this Melbourne group's shows, their good-not-great 2024 debut EP so far had convinced me that their probably incredible live sound has been struggling a bit to translate into recorded form. Well, i can certainly say that this is less of an issue for much of their new mini LP which makes an overall much stronger impression for their sparkling sound that at times kinda reminds me of the psychedelic and variably surf-infused garage rock of Crsytal Stilts and Disappears mixed with a hint of early No Age and maybe White Fence, in addition to the eccentric monotonous fuzz escapades of City Yelps and the ethereal, abstract post punk melancholia of Kitchen's Floor and Mother's Milk... A quirky mixture that is for sure but it works quite admirably. Even when the band runs an acute risk of overstretching their most airy qualities in the record's slow middle stretch, the bet pays off and shit just refuses to come apart, however precarious it might look at first glance..
Just a couple weeks after their debut, the second EP of the Beta Máximo dude's new synth punk project simply picks up the strands right where they left them on the predecessor, yet there's also some neat experimentation and surprise to be found in there which we haven't heard before like the airy synth polyrhythms in the verses of El Fin De Los Días showing SYT at their most aloof so far but also rewarding the patience by segueing into some of their most catchy moments in the chorus.
I found it a bit difficult warming up to last year's debut LP by this group featuring, among others, Chris Natividad of Marbled Eye and Public Interest, as that record still struck as a bit too glassy, overindulgent and underdeveloped, severely lacking in direction and contour in an era where that's kinda symptomatic of the sad state the current wave of shoegaze-y groups is operating in. Well, i can't say that about their newest EP though, on which they've considerably sharpened the edges and reinforced the structural integrity of their compositions. Did i just say Shoegaze? Yeah that's right! There's relatively little in common here sound-wise with the slightly ethereal, dreamy post punk of the aforementioned groups. Rather, Blue Zero are distinctly channeling a certain strain from the more straightforward and direct edges of the old-timey Shoegaze spectrum with the likes of Swervedriver, Bailterspace, Pale Saints and early Ride springing to mind immediately.
After their previous LP, though pretty fucking good already, still sounded a bit like stereotypical Berlin post punk on autopilot in some places, their second album (or third maybe, depending on what length you actually consider an LP) considerably widens their stylistic breadth and feels way more deliberately crafted and well thought through in comparison, imbuing their repetitive grooves with a heightened sense of feverish urgency while still calling to mind a number of primarily Berlin based groups like Pigeon, Pretty Hurts, Glaas, early Diät, Clock of Time or Exit Group.
The Des Moines, Iowa group already have an EP and a pretty neat first LP under their belt but i don't remember them ever ripping as hard as they do now on their sophomore album, sporting a sound that in parts feels pleasantly antiquated at this point, kinda as it these guys got stuck in a time loop around the mid-aughts to early '2010s garage punk era and they have the bottomless well of catchy-ass tunes and explosive performances to make that shit stick.
Right away the debut EP of this group based in Eugene, Oregon radiates a vibe reminding me of a number of short-lived noisy and melodic punk groups from the early 2010s like Milk Music, Fins and Dharma Dogs as well as the fairly recent bands Jolana Star and Psychic Dogs who seem determined to revive that timeless sound of borderline post punk-ish catchy punk tunes paying tribute to the eighties Homestead, SST Records and Touch & Go eras. So now you can add Liquid Cross to that list but also, there's a notable hint of early-days Protomartyr present here, most notably their second and third LPs, in no small part due to the singer's voice channeling a weary and melancholic quality quite similar to Protomartyr's Joe Casey.
