A super effective bunch of straightforward punk smashers by a Perth grounp - simple at first glance yet always carefully constructed for maximum impact. Plausible comparisons from recent years would include bands such as Xetas, Cool Jerks, Flowers of Evil or Dead Years while from long before that, you might see flashes of Naked Raygun, Laughing Hyenas, Hot Snakes, Man Sized Action and the like…
Just a quck hint here about three excellent new tapes courtesey of the ever-reliable 11 PM Records. The post-/math-/weirdcore powerhouse Rolex doesn't need any introduction, i think, delivering a snappy three-and-a-half minutes long fireworks of eleborate, hyperactice and chaotic postcore. Phantom then represent something of an opposite to that with oldschool hardcore punk of the most primal and unruly kind. Z-Pak, last but not least, appear to to combine the qualities of both aforementioned acts. What's not to love about that?
Fun and unsettling all the same, the second release by some Cleveland, Ohio dudes who have already brought us such wonders as Woodstock '99, Spike Pit and Bad Noids. The thing starts off kinda like Bad Brains or Circle Jerks with a random dose of Deep Purple mixed in… such unspeakable things appear to be in fashion right now and i'm all for it! At other times you may find bits and pieces of The Mentally Ill, Flipper, Noxious Fumes and other weirdness from an era when hardcore punk was still allowed to be fun, not yet codified to death and most of all not taking itself so fucking seriously. A freewheeling spirit nowadays kept alive by acts such as Mystic Inane, Launcher, Liquid Assets or Cement Shoes, among others.
Wow, i didn't really expect this to happen. A good seven years after the group's sorta classic LP The Battle Of Brisbane we finally get another album by what at this point appears to exist as more of a solo venture by vocalist Matt Kennedy. His singular sound and vision in the realm of post punk, noise rock and that unlikely folk-y undercurrent comes accross as sharp and uncompromising as ever though, appearing beautifully out of step with the zeitgeist.
After years of venturing into sometimes more, sometimes less obvious (sub-)genres, the latest longplayer of Jake Robertson's Alien Nosejob marks kind of a return to his Ausmuteants roots in some places, while still carrying plenty of echoes of his more ecclectic ventures of late. Oh, and most of all, he's diving knee-deep into classic-/dad rock territory this time but thankfully doing so with style, grace and a sense of humor. Smashers like Shuffling Like Coins and Coastal Living 2 are probably as close to a tonge-in-cheek AC/DC knockoff as you're ever gonna get.
Dangerously catchy Lo-Fi garage punk and power pop from Madrid, kinda channeling the strengths of other spanish acts of late, most obviously among those would be Prison Affair, Beta Maximo and Finale while international acts á la Nuts, R.M.F.C. or or Satanic Togas aren't too far off either.
New shit from Nick Vicario aka Smirk, also known as part of such potent punk powerhouses as Public Eye, Crisis Man und Cemento. His second LP carries more of his eclectic post- and garage punk extravaganza sourced out of a generous grab bag of punk samples, bearing fleeting similarities to such diverse acts as ISS, Institute, Alien Nosejob, Cherry Cheeks, Uranium Club, Reality Group or Marbled Eye.
Dumb and simplistic garage-/synth punk shit from Sweden that won't fail to energize fans of the likes of Liquid Face, The Spits, Ausmuteants, Sex Mex, Mateo Manic, Slimex, Powerplant, Buck Biloxi and the Fucks… pick your poison!
Damn, unforgivable how i could overlook this kickass tape already released this summer, containing delicilously excentric Lo-Fi post punk shit giving off a heavy smell of Desperate Bicycles, Swell Maps, early Mekons plus any random artifact of 80s cassette culture as well as some New Order-ish vibes in the closing track Dog Having Its Day.
You know what's really been missing recently? A new dungeon punk scorcher! This artifact of unclear origin goes the buzzsaw synthpunk-meets-black-metal route and does a formidable job at getting you into the mood for some skull-splitting action in the musty catacombs.