This sheffield dude delighted in 2020/'21 with three excellent EPs of covid lockdown-spawned melodic garage punk and it appears these four tunes have also been languishing on some hard drive in half-finished form since back then and have only recently been given the finishing touches. So no surprises here really - these songs feel like a seamless continuation of that same greatness, once again taking the form of super-catchy no-frills punk tunes that seem to have equal amounts of Buzzcocks and solo-era Jay Reatard in them as well as the high-impact garage blasts of Kid Chrome and, most recently, the simple, fuzzed-out garage-/noise pop hymns of Sex Mex.
I think the demo of this NYC group is some pretty fucking brilliant shit. The charmingly rustic Lo-Fi recording can't do anything really to obscure the obvious qualities of their spin on equally catchy and hard-hitting fuzz- and garage punk that at first glance radiates a pronounced Wipers-meet-KBD-esque vibe with some added Saints, Buzzcocks and Dead Boys flair but there's more under the hood than first meets the eye as some closer observation reveals some neat little flourishes and details, like a bit of a southern rock flavor, the kind we've recently heard on that Elvis 2 LP while the forceful, tight-ass presentation and the vocalist's pissed of bark call to mind the likes of Split System and Punter. In other moments, you may draw some plausible comparisons to the frantic post punk of Nevosas or the rougher end of the Booji Boys spectrum.
Here's yet another bucket of egg-ish garage-/synth punk in the form of this Melbourne group's charming collection of demo recordings of which some "proper" recordings are rumored to exist by now as well, which we're hopefully gonna get to hear quite soon. Just as on their debut EP earlier this year this shit ain't gonna redefine the genre but delivers some quite infectious tunes staying within the specifications and tropes of contemporary garage-/eggpunk while also showing some massive improvement over the debut in terms of consistency and sheer catchyness.
Smoocher Gimme The Gears Groind Debt Hollywood Fuckheads Shit Blows Up Kram-A-Xam Pick Up the Phone, Idiot Thought Partner Trop Chug Cortada Fossa Séptica A/Lpaca Laughter, Us Us Thyroids Suited & Tied Pill Time Pill Time Frizbee So Sick Snarewaves John Mcafee Shit No Sector Flush Your Brain Ideomotor U.C.S.A. (Don't Need It) Psychic Vampire Sophomaniac Degrowth Degrowth Zyph Schnell Schnell Oova En Tu Casa No Te Quieren Crying Form Comm-unity Destruxion Amerika Putrefaxion Sword Breaker Under The Banner Of Vengeance
Tracklist
Missvnaries Ov Charity Radium Girls Ex Iguana Growing Skin Håndgemeng The Cauldron Born Split System Chemicals Meditation Big Frown Dog Lips Brain Feeder The Vacant Lot Age Les Lullies A L'etroit Laxisme 7 Secondes Monda Everything You Wanted The Gotobeds Goes Away
Dallax, Texas punks Thyroids have been fucking around with different styles and vibes for quite a few years already but they really started to hit their stride with last year's excellent EP Toppings and Droppings. Now, for their first full LP, they've once again shaken up and diversified their sound considerably, with only traces left of the heavy synth punk leanings of the predecessor. The opening track ABCs of Assimilation delights with a variation on angular post-meets-garage punk shit á la Reality Group, Uranium Club, Exit Group and also quite a bit of Skull Cult - even more so in tunes like Static/Dynamic or The New Poor, which also have a bit of an undeniable Knowso vibe to them. The Loot and Don't Ask, Dumbass are no-frills borderline-hardcore gut punches. Daily Habits reimagines the group in a somewhat egg-ish guise while Enterview and Suited & Tied have something of a math-y postcore edge, vaguely reminiscent of the likes of Big Bopper, Rolex, Brandy or Mystic Inane. Check Engine Light conjures up some oldschool Useless Eaters or Ex-Cult energy. Cop Out is a hyper-focused and compact garage smasher getting maximum mileage out of an old-fashioned riff and the closing tune !!! Click Now To Claim Your Reward !!! once again goes all-in on the afrementioned Skull Cult and Uranium Club vibes to utterly hypnotic results.
