Once again stupid me was way too late noticing that a new record by Cincinnati, Ohio's pop wizards Vacation has hit the shelves via Salinas Records, repeatedly proving their knack for crafting refined jewels of melodic noise at the intersection of oldschool nineties-style indie rock, graceful power- and noise pop. This shit is catchy as fuck without ever getting too formulaic or predictable. A rare breed these days and even more rarely does it ever come across as powerful and flawlessly executed as here. An album of twelve hits and zero misses as for this group, "pretty good" simply doesn't cut it.
New shit from one of KBD-informed garage punk's prime makers in our time, L.A.'s Freakees. Having tried on quite diverse stylistic flourishes, bits and pieces on recent EPs including pure synth-/electro punk on their previous one, they have never sounded more focused than on their newest effort and this pays off admirably as the current, pretty synth-heavy iteration of their sound totally slaps and might be compared favorably to acts like early Launcher, Alien Nosejob, Research Reactor Corp., Liquid Assets and Satanic Togas.
Garage punk made by a group from Stuttgart, Germany which, despite its german lyrics, thankfully doesn't sound all that german. Rather i'd compare them to recent groups of the more or less KBD-influenced breed like Liquid Assets and Freakees. Further parallels might be drawn to Erik Nervous, Useless Eaters or Sauna Youth. A fine selection, that is.
The Seattle group has been around for quite some time now and accordingly at this point, their ultra-oldschool garage punk sound heavily indebted to MC5 and Stooges feels as worn-in and mature as it gets. Their speeds occasionally reach into hardcore territory now, but that's pretty much the only major change since their 2015 Demo. All of this would be a recipe for utter boredom in the hands of a less capable band but as always, Lysol easily hammer that shit home by virtue of sheer force.
A kinda unexpected and excellent music submission came in here by a group from Zagreb, Croatia playing a variety of dark oldschool post punk with a very slight goth edge, reminding my at different points of contemporary groups like Daylight Robbery, The Estranged, Primitive Teeth, Anxious Living, Criminal Code or Xetas while of the old guard, there's certainly some Wipers-esque guitar work in there and maybe some mid-80s Naked Raygun? In the second half of the album, things get increasingly more melodic, gaining some kind of melancholic Leatherface-, HDQ- or mid-to-late 80s Government Issue vibe.
…and here's yet another exquisite load of quirky, fun & catchy DIY garage- and synth punk by some australian dude that fits right in between, say, the last Alien Nosejob full-length and the even more colorful microcosm of Warttman-affiliated groups.
