Jake Robertson's Alien Nosejob usually finds some way to subvert our expectations and their newest 7", coming to us as usual via Anti Fade Records, ain't no exception in that regard! The Executioner surprises with what might easily be the most post punk the group has ever sounded as cold and raw electric beats get welded to an equally rigid construct of repetitive guitar riffs, combining into a slightly industrial-ish overall vibe. West Side Story then is closer to the familiar and beloved standard Alien Nosejob formula, a straightforward yet elegant garage punk smasher based on a single exquisite riff that could just go on forever but conveniently gets faded out in time before it can cause any lasting (hearing-) damage.
Following up on their much rougher, hardcore-leaning International Heartthrob EP of last year, Indiana's Spewed Brain take their sound into a catchier, slightly egg-ish direction on their new LP while staying delightfully fucked-up and unpredictable, at different times reminding me of groups as diverse as, say, Trauma Harness, Print Head, Exwhite, The Gobs, Snooper, Rolex, Witch Piss or Slimex.
Oh look, it's that mysterious dude again who also goes by such names as Zhoop, Djinn, Nightman, Feed, Brundle and even more disguises i can't recall right now. As usual he does exactly one thing on here and he gets it right every single time - five excellent no-frills minimalist detonations on the intersection of garage-, hardcore- and fuzz punk.
The second LP by this Melbourne garage punk supergroup brings further gradual refinement to their distinct formula carrying all the right baggage from many decades of particularly australian punk history both ancient and recent, presented with heartfelt urgency and a persistent sense of melancholy that's quite unique to them, a knack for catchy hooks, elegant, simple and effective songwriting which has had the group running circles around the bulk of the genre pretty much from day one, all the while leaving impact craters with the unrelenting fury of their performance. Nothing short of spectacular, this record!
A mainstay of recent years in garage punk is back with a somewhat more high-profile LP via Erste Theke Tonträger following a recent string of more understated cassette and digital releases. This thing is as eclectic as any of these but at the same time, a lot more focused, determined and consistent than some of those more scrappy recent offerings. Spanning a spectrum from the propulsive post punk of the opening salvo (When It's Gone, A.P.A.C.), melancholy indie rock ballads (Texas Cloud), compfy synth pop tunes (Let U Know) to straightforward garage-/fuzz punk explosions (Can't Take It, 2 Car Garage), there's plenty of meat to dig your teeth into, all held together by Vinny Earley's always confident, often plainly brilliant songwriting powers. Last but not least, Weekend Shadows and Carryon are further examples of exactly that kind of supreme power-/fuzz pop hymn the dude has always excelled at.
Following their perfectly appetizing (and as far as i can make out, completely vanished off the face of the internet by now) Black Box EP in 2022, we get this group's debut full-length courtesey of Dirtnap Records and this time around, there's actually some tangible background info available. No wonder these folks sounded familiar the first time around, since we're dealing with a duo consisting of US garage punk royalty Mark Ryan (most notably of Radioactivity, Mind Spiders and Marked Men) and Micah Why, whose previous bands i don't think i've ever come across. Their minimalist synth punk certainly has retained some of that Mind Spiders vibe although this shit is a lot darker, more stripped-down and abrasive, having a certain oldschool vibe to it wich echoes of Minimal Man, Nervous Gender, Screamers, Units or Visitors but you might just as well compare them to more recent phenomena like Powerplant, Pow!, Spyroids or a somewhat less spikey version of Lost Packages crossbred with the digital insanity of Nubot555, the more minimalist moments of Digital Leather.
Songs about motor vehicles aren't quite as ubiquitous as they once were and i'm just gonna say say deservedly so because honestly, that ancient, most wasteful mode of personal transportation can't be phased out soon enough and the future clearly belongs to all varieties of bikes and trains. But here we go, it's an unlikely new EP made up of nothing but carpunk tunes. Musically the thing slaps though, their weird and whimsical mix of art- and garage punk being of similar character to household names such as Vexx, Cel Ray, Warm Bodies, Warp or Fugitive Bubble.
Alrighty, so here's a new Billiam record doing all the awesome tricks a new Billiam record's supposed to do and by now i'm sure you've long since made up your mind about the dude and whether you love or hate his schtick - kinda the musical equivalent to a Wes Anderson flick i guess. I'm firmly in the "love" camp concerning both Billiam and Wes Anderson though and even if they'd both just continue to re-make that exact same kind of film/record for the rest of their lives, i can always take one more of that!
Another mysterious eggpunk bomb has dropped from… well, where in the world actually? Released on a Tel Aviv label, the song titles, as google translate tells me, are apparently portuguese. Then again, sound-wise, the closest reference would probably be the blown-out mayhem of Barcelona genre overlords Prison Affair with further comparisons to be made to Cologne's Nuts, the early works of australian groups á la Set-Top Box, Eugh, Midgee, Research Reactor Corp and, to come full circle eventually, Tel Aviv's own crude eggpunk sensation Victor would fit nicely in there too. So, long story short, this is some premium grade globetrotting shit, regardless of where these folks might actually be located.
Yet another good reference point, then again, would be Charleston, South Carolina's Beer and, speaking of the devil, the world's most beerest beer band has just released their second extended play to which most of what i've just said is gonna apply verbatim so i'm not gonna repeat myself and instead just gonna crank up the good shit and advise you to do the same 'cos i know your neighbors are just gonna love it!
A dense and noisy post punk spectacle unfolds on this Richmond, Virginia group's debut EP, its four elaborately constructed songs making a fully mature and confident impression already. At times this has a curious vibe of, say, Straw Man Army plus a subtle trace of Poison Ruïn while in other places this shit reminds me a lot of some of the past decade's more melancholy and song-oriented post punk acts in the vein of early Estranged, Public Eye, Criminal Code, Bruised, VHS, Waste Man as well as Atlanta heavyweights Wymyns Prysyn and Institute/Mothers's Milk.