I rarely get too exited about the current generation of shoegaze-related groups, who for the most part seem perfectly content with just creating a pleasant soundscape to fall asleep to and soon forget about. This Paris group, however, does not only have the sonics, but also the drive and the hooks to make it stick, finding kind of a workable middle ground between the obvious golden-era Shoegaze acts (especially a strong Bailter Space vibe going on here), some early Sarah Records pop and more recent noise pop examples of the Gold Bears, Seablite or Flyying Colours variety.
The newest EP of Rhode Island one-man-band Germ House aka Justin Hubbard carries another strong batch of songs in their trademark juxtaposition of rustic post punk abstraction and a folky undercurrent. Especially in the first half, these songs feel a tad more developed than usual this time while still retaining their overall quirkiness and their minimalist, fragmentary charme.
Seven more inches of undiluted greatness from Berlin post punk stalwarts Pigeon. The a-side is a turbocharged stremroller just as catchy as it's abrasive while the b-side track goes a more cumbersome, slow and stubborn route to a no less pulverizing effect.
I'm sure everyone's already taken notice, but i can't leave that one out here, a new release by the only german punk group i've ever heard of. In a nutshell, Pisse are still very much Pisse (and yes, that is indeed the german word for piss), their jet of yellow liquid still being very precisely focused on the various processes and phenomena involved in the gradual crushing of the human soul in that society of ours while not sparing the punk scene their due amount of ridicule either. Their music on the fringes of post- and garage punk ain't nothing to be embarrassed about either, even in the closing track Favorit, which drags some Suicide-esque synth minimalism through a decidedly german schlager hell.
This project revolving around Jim Blaha (The Blind Shake, Jim and the French Vanilla) and Annie Sparrows (Soviettes, Awesome Snakes) sounds quite unlike any of Jim Blaha's other groups that i'm aware of on their second LP, these songs without exception having a dreamy, melancholy power pop vibe and an unlikely post punk edge to them - kinda like a mix between Radioactivity, Mind Spiders and a slightly muted The Estranged fused together by rock solid songwriting chops.
A strong little batch of melodic garage punk by some UK group - fans of stuff like Radioacticity, Sweet Reaper, Ex-White, Booji Boys, Telecult, Steve Adamyk Band or Sonic Avenues listen up!
The Leipzig scene delivers reliable quality once again with this EP made up of hyperactive garage-/post punk bastardizations calling to mind a cluster of groups á la Onyon, Patti, Big Bopper, Warm Red, Cat Scan, Rogue… a bit of Ex-Cult & Constant Mongrel, maybe??
The debut Album of this Philadelphia group is, in a word, fucking impressive. Versatile, inventive post punk this is, moving about somwhere inbetween the repetitive abstraction of Nots, the no-bullshit direct attack of Lié, grooves, noise eruptions and melodic textures reminiscent of early Protomartyr, some sparkling Sonic Youth-esque walls of noise and the relentless propulsion of Nervosas, then closing out the album with a jam enveloped in a thick psychedelic haze.
Damn, i thought i was done blogging for the week and then this unexpected little gem of crude and shambolic noise by a Budapest group crops up last minute, their sound striking me as a peculiar fusion of oddball garage punk in the Eddy Current Suppression Ring and UV Race vein with similarly weird acts in the post punk and oldschool indie rock field such as Treehouse, Kitchen's Floor, The Molds and City Yelps.
Here's another one i almost missed. The newest LP by New York's Wilful Boys delivers ten tight blows of noise rock obviously pulling lots of inspiration from the classic sludge-heavy AmRep era - Cows, especially - plus maybe a few touches of U-Men, Feedtime and 80's Scientists… while sounding perfectly contemporary at the same time, sometimes striking a similar chord to groups such as Help!, Tunic, John (Timestwo), USA Nails or Death Panels.
