Portland’s Yacht Fire absolutely killed it with last year’s self-titled debut EP of cool-as-fuck DIY fuzzed-out garage punk that alternated between quite catchy and utterly abrasive tunes. The successor now transports the same awesomeness while slightly expanding on the folk-ish vibes already subtly present on the first EP, now taking center stage most notably in Run and Kiss Off, while Nod and Cigarettes are punchy no-frills bursts of simple and effective fuzz punk mayhem and the closing tune Werewolf keeps hitting hard too with a bit of a Wipers-meet-Dead Moon vibe. This is yet another all-killer record by a band you should absolutely keep a eye on!
The tireless Leipzig scene strikes again with yet another quality bunch of eggpunk tunes roughly in the vein of a less distorted Prison Affair, Beer, Egg Idiot or Research Reactor Corp.. Sure, don’t expect anything new or groundbreaking here but this shit still packs plenty of a familiar quirky punch and tons of a reliable, if – at this point – kinda basic and no longer terribly original kind of fun.
A lovely and fun debut by some Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania group. The instrumental opening tune Liftoff Jam (White Boys in E) swells into a monotonous monster of psychedelic haze that sounds a bit as if MX-80 and Chrome were being fused with early The Men, only for the rest of the EP to settle into a slightly less cumbersome aesthetic of straightforward, somewhat Stooges-esque garage punk that occasionally approaches some hardcore speeds and energy levels and keeps setting itself apart by way of its subtle psychedelic overtones and a constant melodic undercurrent flowing through their catchy, oldschool garage- and proto punk stylings.
Lansing, Michigan’s Snarewaves are releasing quite a lot of stuff to keep up with so you gotta forgive me for not posting about it every single time the dude releases like another two-minute EP. Now’s a good time however as the I’d Rather Die Than Be On Linkedin EP first released a couple weeks ago has now been extended into a twelve-song micro-LP with an epic total running time of six-and-a-half minutes, plus, there’s already the next one available which may or may not get that same treatment over the coming weeks. Snarewaves releases are iterative. We’re used to that by now. And what can i say, their music always appears to make more sense to me when it comes in a larger bundle, transforming his ultra-short bursts of lo-fi electro punk into some kind of disjointed opera. Right now this shit still sounds like no one else around, as if current developments in garage punk and oldschool hardcore elements were being forced through the low-res sample meatgrinder of ancient Amiga 500 tracker files. If i had to come up with something at least superficially related, it would be the Schleswig, Germany based synth punk viking Klint, probably.
Brilliantly simple anarcho-flavored post punk is what we get on this Demo by a group from Perth, Australia, working a decidedly rough, unpolished aesthetic of minimal means towards maximum impact, along the way reminding me of a bunch groups ranging from more obvious references like Institute, Impotentie and early Rank/Xerox to a significantly slowed-down variant of either Nag or recent Pyrex.
I don’t think i’ve ever given Media Puzzle from Lismore, Australia the full blog post spotlight here so far which is a freakin’ crime really, as this dude has by now been a constant presence on the eggpunk periphery for close to two years and, despite keeping relatively close to a well-established genre formula at the surface-level at least, has since developed a voice pretty much of his own after all and it’s just pretty fucking hard to escape the gravitational pull of his super catchy and instantly likeable make of garage punk, stuffed to the brim with contagious hooks.
This New York group has just dropped an insanely strong debut cassette via Popular Affliction Records bursting at the seams from all the equally punishing and vitalizing energy, compacted into eleven bursts of garage-, electro- and synth punk with a bit of a dissonant noise rock edge to them but also some of that sci-fi b-movie obsessed Spits- or Stalins Of Sound vibe. A distinct knack for sometimes basic but always exceedingly potent punk hooks and noisy textures which occasionally may even evoke some vaguely Big Black-ish spirit, coupled with a sprinkling of somewhat cheesy, (just barely) egg-ish flourishes most noticeable in Faith in Football, plus slight catchy hints of The Gobs and Sex Mex respectively later on in Accelerate and ADHD make for a thoroughly flammable concoction that doesn’t have to shy away from comparisons with some of the best shit the genre had to offer in the past decade-plus like Exit Mould, Kerozine, Cthtr, De()t, Quitter, Broken Prayer, Molbo, C57BL/6, STDees, The Q-Tips and Spyroids, just to name a few that immediately spring to mind.
Austin, Texas group D.A.R.Y.L. had made a strong impression already with last year’s Rock N Roll High School mini-LP and now build on that same foundation of synth-enhanced fuzz punk, noise pop and garage punk to even greater effect with their second release. Below the thick layer of blown-out, sledghammer sound aesthetics you’ll find a perfect track record of simple, dangerously catchy tunes and melodies, a way broader stylistic variety and much improved songwriting qualities compared to the, at times, still somewhat one-dimensional vibes of the debut. This now kinda sounds like only one half Buck Biloxi / Giorgio Murderer and the other half smelling of Gobs and Exwhite… or Booji Boys, Dadgad maybe? Everyhing about that mixture sounds so fucking right to me!
England’s Noise Merchant Records just reissued this Spokane, Washington group’s debut tape which i’ve somehow either missed or stupidly ignored last winter. On it, they inject some slight hint of early Superchunk or Dinosaur Jr into an overall sound more in alignment with 1st- and 2nd-wave emocore, getting all the basics right at reproducing the genre’s tropes and conventions that made it awesome in the first place while avoiding all the pitfalls that would make it a fucking joke and a tired cliché later on, while the songwriting chops on display here are somewhat basic but confident and sure-footed enough to keep you engaged, even if Puddy Knife won’t add anything new to the genre here rather than reminding us of how much fun and joy you could get out of it in its earlier days and still can to this day, once you strip it of its acquired baggage of clownish mall punk cosplay and performative self-pity.
Typically excellent new fodder from some of my favorite post punk weirdos. The first track Optimism on this new Cassingle by the Cleveland, Ohio group encapsulates all the hallmarks of their angular brand of post punk into a compact and super-catchy little package while Foot Of Pride is a somewhat more ambitious, sprawling affair which – with its mid-tempo pace and uncharactaristically expansive length of over five minutes – still doesn’t ever come close to overstaying its welcome thanks to its understated but effective slow-burn dramaturgy and a performance every bit as sharp and precise as anything this one-of-a-kind group has done before.
