Apparently, formerly New Orleans-based group Waste Man have relocated to New York City recently. Sound-wise though, they stay true to themselves on their newest EP, by which i mean they stay unpredictable as ever and keep the listeners on their toes every second in their very own mixture on the intersection of Post Punk, Postcore and slight touches of Americana (the latter are less obvious here though…). Especially notable this time is the six-minute slow-burn track White Horse that plays out kinda like a fusion of early Shellac, Slint, Jawbox & Fugazi.
This group from Portarlington, Australia creates a droning, sprawling and nonetheless absolutely ripping soundscape that combines the traits of such timeless greats as Wipers, 80s Sonic Youth, U-Men or Live Skull, just as much as a fuzzy clump of AUS and NZ groups like The Gordons, Fungus Brains, X and Feedtime.
The newest EP by Pittsburg band Illiterates, following up an already pretty fucking good 2021 record, is nothing short demented and fun oldschool hardcore perfection, kinda making a point of inventing nothing new here while never droppig the ball for a second either - this is one tight, fun and, well… dumb as fuck blast of a record.
More quirky garage punk insanity from that Barcelona group who already made an excellent impression with previous EP two years ago. Somewhat more focused and confident sounding on this one, this is another delightful blast of high-percentage egg-ness in a similar vein to, say, R.M.F.C., Set-Top Box, Nuts or Spain's own wonders of the Prison Affair, Finale and Beta Maximo variety.
Beautifully shambolic chaos operating somewhere around the weirder fringes of hardcore and garage punk. When in hardcore mode, i'm most reminded of Cells and other hardcore-leaning projects of Connie Voltaire while on the garage side of things, i'm thinking of stuff á la Liquids, early Erik Nervous or - more recently - Print Head and Scab Breath.
New stuff from Gee Tee or Vee or whatever, this dude's shit is all good! On this LP, he's holding a nice balance between the power pop tendencies of his recent Tee Vee Repairman records and the somewhat more garage-leaning projects of his á la Satanic Togas, Research Reactor Corp. and Set-Top Box, making for another fine batch of fuzzed-out garage pop tunes, among them some of his most infectious ones so far, that's for sure.
Tempe, Arizona group Soft Shoulder have been at it for way over a decade now and still seem as lively and productive as ever, having churned out a steady stream of singles and EPs released digitally and as limited lathe cuts the past year. Their newest LP presents them as focused as they haven't been in a long while though, their quirky-as-fuck mixture of post punk and noise rock bursting with energy as catchy grooves somewhat reminiscent of The Fall from the late eighties onward collides with a decidedly no-wave school of noise and dissonance.
A duo made up of Kimi Recor and Vinny "Vaguess" Earley, you can't really overlook the similarities to the latter dude's recorded output but there's also more going on here. Starting off from a familiar mix of garage- and post punk there's some clear Lithics kind of energy in some places or Welt Star, another Earley-related project comes to mind while songs like Staring at the Sun and Please 3 sound like forgotten Woolen Men tunes that fell through the cracks somewhere and Chameleon has the vibe of a Digital Leather deep cut from an alternate cold-wave reality.
Like a smelly puddle of pure hard- and noisecore disgust, this neat little tape by New York group Opsec has kind of an extensive Flipper- and No Trend feel to it just as well as bits and pieces of more recent phenomena like Soupcans, C-Krit, Stinkhole, Crisis Man, Black Button or Mystic Inane.
New depravity by polish garage punk's current prime movers and shakers Moron's Morons! To put it simply, this shit is fucking good - a vaguely traditional oldschool garage goodness mostly reminiscent of other european groups like Shitty Life, Dadar, Mitraille or Gluer as well as a few US acts á la Sick Thoughts, Hank Wood & The Hammerheads. Also plenty of more oldschool stuff to mention here like Australia's overlords Saints and Radio Birdman, classic California punk shit of the Germs, Agent Orange, Adolescents variety goin' on in numbers like Psychosis Diagnosis and Nothin' for You.