Now this one's a curious beast. Nashville group Donors already won my attention two years ago with their first EP and a somewhat more conventional mix of garage- and post punk, but this is a different level of weirdness altogether, as they infuse their sound with increasing amounts of dissonant no wave havoc and proto noise rock á la Flipper, No Trend. What in the world could i compare this stuff to? Tyvek or Constant Mongrel reimagined as a no wave act? Spray Paint as a garage band? I'm not entirely sure what they actually set out to do but there's no doubt they're succeeding with flying colors. Just when you thought you made sense of the whole thing, the closing track Fine Print manages to surprise once again by adding some Haunted Horses-style industrial flavor to the mix.
The cologne scene appears to be picking up steam in recent months. Newest piece of evidence is this thoroughly enjoyable demo of quirky one-man DIY garage punk somewhat in the vein of acts like Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, T.L.B.M, Dot.Com, Dee Bee Rich… maybe even a bit of early Erik Nervous. Fine stuff!
An unrelenting storm of raw KBD-meets-stoner punk kicked loose by the Freaks of Philadelphia, enforced with loads of hardcore propulsion. Starts out kinda like an amalgamation of early Milk Music or Dinosaur Jr. with Everything Falls Apart-era Hüsker Dü, then settles into a mode that comes across like a mix of Tarantüla/Cülo, Fried Egg, a hint of Launcher and some added sludge and death rock vibes, the latter reminding me of Beta Boys.
The debut album by Chicago group Stuck is pretty much everything you could hope for and a massive leap in sophistication over their already rock solid debut EP. Just like back then, Stuck still have no intention of reinventing the postcore wheel, but instead exhibit a thorough understanding of their genre's ins and outs and the skillful usage of its grammar and vocabulary to quite thrilling effect. While there's undeniably some influence of their hometown scene of yesteryear - as well as the obligatory traces of 90s Washington - their sound mostly reminds me of current acts such as USA Nails and even more of the recent wave of australian bands like Batpiss, Bench Press and Noughts.
Following two strong demo tapes and the flawless ripper that was last year's debut album via Emotional Response Records, Oakland's Neutrals already have another EP out on which they seemlessly resume their remarkable winning spree. No other band right now so effortlessly nails this specific subgenre of endlessly charming, qirky heart-on-its-sleeve style DIY post-/art punk surely inspired by the likes of Television Personalities, early Mekons or Desperate Bicycles, while still seeming firmly rooted in this day and age.
Their third LP - once again released via the tastefully named label 12XU Records (which i'm totally not involved with, i promise!) - presents Austin punks Xetas' sound in its most mature incarnation yet, most noticeable in terms of its more confident, varied and always rock solid songcraft. Still riding the fine line between straightforward punk rock and energetic post punk/-core, with the needle pointing a bit more in the latter direction this time, you might describe this shit as a curious mix between Red Dons, Video, Meat Wave and Daylight Robbery. In other words: Quality Stuff!
On their recent 7" via Iron Lung, Oakland's Shrinkwrap Killers blow a pretty little hole in your speakers by way of a flawless one-two punch made up of fuzzy, melodic garage punk and bearing some similarity to The Stalins Of Sounds, S.B.F. or Kid Chrome. Nuff said.
Not too long after their recent 7" suggested some amount of relaxation in the Cleveland trio's sound, they fall right back into their tense and gritty old ways on their second album - even double down on them compared to the already rough blast of their debut album three years ago - amounting to another perfect round of fuzzed out garage noise glory, this time reminding me of early Greenberg-era The Men in all their uncompromising force.
So far, the synth-/garage punk project Isotope Soap a.k.a. swedisch punk veteran Peter Swedenhamar has released nothing but top quality stuff in the form of three EPs, all of them were reissued last year on a compilation album via Emotional Response. His first longplayer doesn't dissappoint either. On it, Swedenhamar considerably expands his eclectic raid of obscure punk history, resulting in his most varied and playful release yet, incorporating among other things moments of trippy space punk, pure synth pop, dreamy krautscapes. And of course also a lot of his more straightforward signature Devo-meet-Ausmuteasnts style that made up the bulk of his EPs.
San Francisco's Modern Needs let off one delicious fart after another into the atmosphere, consisting of straight, simple & effective Fuzz reminiscent of early 80s westcoast punk & hardcore as well as plenty of crude KBD-vibes. As such, they make good company to other contamporary bands like Launcher, Freakees, Beast Fiend or Liquid Assets.
