Why Bother? – Indoctrination
Case Studies releases October 3rd via Feel It Records.
Luxury Apartments – Troubled Time
Problem Green – Basic!
Hyperdog – Smartphone
Garden Horse – A Little Ocean
Gut Health – Beat To Beat
Verspannungskassette #98 (C-60)
Tracklist
LXRP Artifacting
Hyperdog Smartphone
Bront Don't Wash it Too Hard
Fen Fen Shellshokt
Snarewaves Impulse Control
Cool Sorcery Fast Cars
Winky Frown Upside Down Frown
Music for Microwaves Offline
Ack Attack Bag Fries
Top Secret Nicho Dining Nothing
Revanche Plus rien
Dog Lips Human Hybrid
Tee//Vee Power Sits Over The Blood
Road Train Wide Load
Osis Flies
Clean Needle Idiot Box
Folding Chair S.C.M.
Surto Coletivo Suco de cü
Segundos Auxilios Oso siamés
Tracklist
O-D-EX Talents
Zulo Teenage medicine
Dragnet Shadowboard
Normativ Positive Sanction
Bronco Libre Le tunnel
Gripper Hold On
1-800-Mikey Lost In Translation
Bachelor Pad POSIWID
Bemnoz Tromper Le Sort
Monda It Won't (I Would Do Anything)
Shooting Losers Make It Away
R.M.F.C. Ecstatic Strife
Yuasa-Exide Wrong End
Vaguess Look Away
Monda – The Mondas
Ever since i first stuck my nose in their immense output sometime last year, New Jersey group Monda have proven their worth as not only one of the most productive, but also most consistent purveyors of catchy and fuzzed-out delicacies sitting somewhere inbetween garage punk, oldschool indie rock, noise- and power pop. One other thing you're quickly gonna notice about them is that they really like to rearrange the sonic furniture a bit between releases to keep things fresh and exciting which, among other things, has led to a heavily spaced-out, psychedelic-leaning stretch in their discography most noticeable in and around 2024's Ponderous Leviathan LP. Their newest one now sees them kinda going back to the basics and once again they're getting all of them so fucking right, channelling some pronounced '50s-'60s bubblegum pop vibes just as much as 'eighties Flying Nun and Sarah Records-type art-/indie pop artifacts and various C86-style oddities in a flawless string of strikingly simple but lovingly crafted new tunes that just hit their marks dead-on without exception.
Album-Stream →Fen Fen – In Yer Sights
Detroit garage punks Fen Fen have never disappointed me and they won't on their newest LP either. After their sound seemed to get ever more elaborate and artsy with every previous release, culminating in the almost postcore-adjacent aesthetics of last year's National Threat LP, this new one feels like a bit of a reversal of direction, reconsolidating their sound with a razor-sharp focus on their garage punk roots in a super compact bundle of eight concise and straightforward yet unshakably engineered '77- and proto punk-infused garage punk nuggets.
Album-Stream →Dragnet – Dragnet Reigns!
Is it the third Dragnet LP already? Time flies man. For some reason (time & energy, usually) i've never given them the full blog post treatment here but i'm also gonna say they've never before sounded quite as tight, well-rounded, caffeinated and to-the-point as the Melbourne group featuring members of Vintage Crop, Gonzo and Teen Line among others does on their newest record. There's on one hand that slight Uranium Club-esque vibe to it that also pervades much of the Vintage Crop discography but there's just as much of a distinct quirky synth-driven, eggpunk-ish action going on that sits somewhere inbetween oldschool Ausmuteants, US bands like Smirk, Cherry Cheeks and Australia's own Ghoulies, Aborted Tortoise and Electric Prawns 2.
Album-Stream →Dog Lips – Danger Forward
I didn't expect the latest LP of this Portsmouth, New Hampshire group to hit this hard - what an impressive qualitative leap from pretty much anything they've done before! Right out of the gate the opener Brain Feeder establishes a propulsive force in which weighty grooves and glittering melodic textures collide in a mix of post-, garage punk and a slight hint of postcore. For the remainder of the record, the formula gets further explored and expanded upon and their driving energy certainly gets plenty of reinforcement out of deliberate build-ups and carefully set-up dramaturgy in their sometimes rather simple but oftentimes quite intricate, always perfectly balanced song architectures.
Album-Stream →Osis – Osis
The debut EP of this Boston, Massachusetts band outright wallows in an unapologetically old-fashioned puddle of oldschool punk, hard- and postcore with a slight garage edge that calls to mind many of the more left-field and eccentric acts of both the early D.C. postcore era with bands like Gray Matter, Government Issue, Embrace, Rites of Spring, Fire Party and just as many west coast acts like Really Red, Tragic Mulatto, early Saccharine Trust, balanced out with some lighter, straightforward rocking and energetic moments that evoke a bit of a classic Germs and Adoloscents energy.
Album-Stream →Bronco Libre – Tunnels
Okay here's yet another of these francophone (though in this case seemingly not french) Oi!-infused garage punk groups and i have nothing new to add here but also no complaints whatsoever 'cos the quality is right up there with the genre's best and friends of shit á la Telecult, Stalled Minds, Distance, Nightwatchers, Litovsk or most recently Laxisme are gonna have a ball with this one as well.
Album-Stream →Tee//Vee – Exercise Tape Number One
Now that's some tasty shit coming our way from this indonesian dude or group, four completely blown-out bursts of Lo-Fi fuzz and noise existing somewhere inbetween the parameters of spaced-out art punk of the MX-80 and Chrome variety, japanese psych- & garage punk akin to 80s High Rise or whatever Les Rallizés Dénudés bootleg you've got laying around, spiced-up with a healthy dose of sleazy motörpunk. Neat!
Album-Stream →Gripper – Demo 2025
Gripper from Philadelphia have crafted a delightful debut EP here that in a way channels all of the unabashedly hard-rockin' fun and power pop hooks of the early Sheer Mag singles, leaving out most of the southern rock flourishes but getting all the basics right in a flawles set of two incredibly infectious and catchy pop nuggets and two equally rippin' and appropriately sleazed-up garage punk gems.
Album-Stream →