IMHO, at this hour Cement Shoes of Richmond, Virginia are the current kings of the garagecore micro genre, coupling a massive amount of borderline-sleazy rock'n'roll with an undeniably hardcore kind of energy you will find in relatively few other groups - Cülo or their quasi-successors Tarantüla, Man Eaters come to mind as a somewhat more hardcore-leaning comparison… just maybe. Or kinda like australian sleaze-garage rockers Golden Pelicans having a hardcore epiphany. On their newest 7" via the ever reliable british quality outlet Drunken Sailor Records we get more of just that, while the closing track Going Off The Grid , a rather straightforward, classic garage tune, might or might not indicate a future move away from hardcore speeds. But whatever they're gonna do next, they're an exciting act to keep both eyes on.
Isn't that the Marriage + Cancer guy groaning his vocals? Yep, same guy. The music on this Portland trio's first EP ain't all that different either. Noise Rock of an ultra-classic 90s variety with a hint of math, pretty much in the middle between the more smartass Touch & Go and the more sludge- and metal-affine Amphetamine Reptile universes.
Already a handful of releases into their discography, we kinda know what to expect from a new Flat Worms record by now. However, that doesn't mean they're standing still exactly. Rather, with every new release they managed to focus on and expand upon a certain facet of their garage-, psychedelic- and fuzz punk sound, keeping things fresh and interesting at all times. This time, recording with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, the result does not only show Albini's trademark sonic characteristics, but also their overall sound seems to embrace some of his legacy as a producer audio engineer, veering into a distinctly noise rock/postcore direction that, once again, was always subtly present on their previous records but never as much on display as here and might be compared to contemporary bands like Meat Wave, Metz or USA Nails. Other small but pleasant surprises come in the form of the title track - a garage jam you could almost describe as relaxed - as well as the 90s indie rock vibes in Market Forces.
It took a while for new material of these Minneapolis punks to surface after their first two incredible 7"s. I'm glad to say though, that their unique mix of chaotic hard-/garage-/post-/weirdcore lost none of its spark and their refreshing disregard for common genre tropes and conventions is on full display here, making for another five glorious minutes of noise, just as i've come to expect from this group.
While we're at it, speaking of Kitchen People and Warttman Inc., here's another blast of synth punk insanity by some Kitchen People-affiliated solo project, bearing obvious similarities to Warttman acts like Set-Top Box and Research Reactor Corp., with maybe a bit of Digital Leather or Trashdog sprinkled in from time to time.
The mighty Warttman gang's newest recruits are Kitchen People who have already done a few releases before, although - let's be honest here - none of those has been quite as ripping as their newest EP of appropriately weird, quirky muteant garage-/synth punk. These dudes should fit in comfortably with the rest of Warttman's fucked up bunch.
Six years have passed now since Taulard of Grenoble, France put out their utterly enchanting, otherworldly debut album Les Abords Du Lycée. Even after such a long time, there's still no other Band quite like them and their guitar-less, organ-centric, deeply melancholy and eccentric (post-)punk sound that on paper looks like it could never work, but somehow it does.
Cleveland, Ohio's Knowso already had 7"s out on both Total Punk and Neck Chop Records in the past, which kind of amounts to the ultimate seal of quality in today's garage landscape. Their newest EP contiues all the goodness and carefully branches out from there. At times they remind of a mix between Nag, more recent Useless Eaters and Constant Mongrel. Other times i can draw parallels to the weirdo post punk of Patti or the unruly noise-/garage hybrids of Brandy and Hash Redactor - boiled down to their bare skeleton. Also, Turning Point has some Wire thing going on and you know that kind of shit will always be appreciated here.
Somehow i must've overlooked this Chicago quartet's first EP two years ago… gotta catch up on that now, since their new 7" immediately won me over with its first-rate blend of somewhat garage- and hardcore-infused no-fuss punk rock not too far off from Negative Scanner (whose designated guitar user Matt Revers is also among the perpetrators at work here), Vexx and rounded off by a measured dose of Amyl & The Sniffers-esque '77 style riffing.
Sad to hear that not long after their genre-defying/destroying/fucking/deconstructing/exploding album of last year, this EP is already the swan song of North Carolina's hottest address in contemporary hardcore. So take this last chance to marvel at Das Drip's ambitious hardcore/postcore/artcore/weirdcore… certainly never boringcore.
