This group from Kaloomps, BC, Canada delivers a joyous little ride around the weirder fringes of early-to-mid 80s hard- and postcore with some mean funky grooves thrown in as well as that certain garage punk additive and - to make the mess perfect - given a thorough KBD-style fuckover. Also not too far off from somewhat recent groups in the vein of, say, Mystic Inane or Fried E/m, among others.
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Though Side B didn't click with me quite as much as his Side A debut EP, this Marmora, New Jersey dude is operating in the golden zone once again on his newest Side C with a roughly 80% hit ratio. Less goth-leaning this time, his DIY garage- and post punk miniatures come across as unpredictable as ever with echoes of stuff á la S.B.F., Set-Top Box, Stalins of Sound, Erik Nervous or The Spits scattered throughout this fun little grab bag of tunes.
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On their newest, heavily pandemic-delayed LP, Budapest's Padkarosda don't tweak their existing formula too much which is just fine - no need to fix what isn't broken and that one thing they do, they still excell at: crafting moody oldschool post punk soundscapes with that raw, pitch black all-consuming death rock vibe.
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Goodbye Boozy releases tend to come in batches and here we have the clear standout of this latest one - the newest EP or LP or whatever by Parma, Italy garage punks Dadar who take another kinda straightforward, risk-averse approach here stylistically, while they once again excell at engineering catchy melodic detonations of pure garage- and synth punk fun in the well-trodden neighborhood of Ausmuteants, Mononegatives, Useless Eaters and the like.
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Already having made a great first impression with their recent Vol. 1 tape, Cincinnati's Catastrophic Dance Ensemble have another tiny treat for us, roughly two-and-a-half new songs in their heavily egg-leaning oddball cheesy mixture of garage-, post- and synth punk that friends of, say… Set-Top Box, R.M.F.C., Eugh, Metdog, Mononegatives, Nuts are gonna have another field day with.
I don't think Drew Owen aka Sick Thoughts needs an introduction by now, having been a fixture of the garage punk scene for close to a decade now. His 2018 self-titled LP already counting as a genre classic of its own, i'd say he's now created his definitive masterpiece with this newest one carrying the Total Punk seal of quality. Doubling down on the strong '77 vibes of his most recent Poor Boys / Drug Rock 7", this is an unimpeachable set of hits and also his most stylistically diverse effort so far, most notable here being occasional detours into seventies hard-, glam- and sleaze rock as has been hinted at before by the teaser single Mother I Love Satan - already to be considered an all-time classic of tasteful devil worship music - and further explored here in such tunes as Submachine Love and Rich Kid.
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Following last year's somewhat uneven debut LP of this Berlin group, their newest album is a huge step forward in every aspect - the hugely improved song substance being driven forth with unrelenting momentum and captured in a mid-fi aesthetic that fits them perfectly. Soundwise, they're clearly taking cues from a long lineage of proto- and oldschool garage punk - obviously Stooges, MC5 and Death to begin with, in addition to Dead Moon and some Wipers touches but, most of all, that austalian breed of groups like Saints, Radio Birdman, Scientists appear to have left their mark in their sound, not to mention the larger-than-life fuzz punk one-hit-wonders God - but while the latter seemed to flame up and burn out over the short duration of one glorious A-side never to reach such heights again, S.U.G.A.R. show no signs of wear yet, repeating that marvel eightfold for a certified all-killer-no-filler album.
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A marked change of pace for La Vida Es Un Mus Discos - a label usually more concerned with the rougher ends of the hard- and postcore spectrum - the debut album of this basque group has a contemporary Lo-Fi appeal to its unique take on garage punk with a somewhat murky and bent (or dare i say: Warttman-esque?) sound aesthetic where either guitars sound like synths or vice versa, i wouldn't be able to tell either way. While their playfulness and melodicity call to mind recent stuff by the likes of Prison Affair, Alien Nosejob's hardcore 45s, Beta Maximo or Algara, there's also a raw and authentic 80s hardcore undercurrent going on here peppered with some gentle flashes of Oi! and 90s emocore.
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Whoa, i didn't really expect that record to be this fucking good - a hot contender for my favorite power pop record of 2022, plain and simple. Like a curious eggfolk Resonars or Bevis Frond, these songs also radiate the melancholy, dreamy vibes of Lost Balloons with little hints of early Guided By Voices, Soft Boys, Honey Radar or Woolen Men added to the mix for good measure. The quirky and blown-out lo-fi aesthetics simply can't do anything to lessen the impact and beauty of the superb songwriting chops on display here.
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The second full length of these frenchmen is a bucket of super straightforward, simple and catchy-as-fuck oldschool garage punk joy sparkling with '77 energy - there's nothing too smart about if yet plenty to delight in nonetheless when these folks kick up a primitive storm coming across a bit like a mix of Buck Biloxi and the Fucks, The Spits, The Uglies and - quite obviously - Sick Thoughts.
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