Telegenic Pleasure - Concentric Grave
What kind of twisted punk student exchange program would lead to an album being recorded both in London, Ontario and London, England? The band committing the deed appears to have connnections to some London's Gaggers and Miscalculations as well as some other London's Isolation Party and Mononegatives - the latter being the most obvious comparison though, as their very own brand of spaced-out synth- and garage punk reigns supreme on this record too, along with flourishes of Pow!, Useless Eaters, Freak Genes, Isotope Soap, Mind Spiders, Powerplant and Digital Leather. Fucking awesome shit, in other words.
Album-Stream →Romance - Seven Inches of Romance
A neat little yet-to-be-pressed 7" by a Sydney group sounding a little as if a more spiky version of Lithics collided with the likes of noisy post punkers Brandy, the recent noisecore of Shove, a very slight hint of Wipers and the ancient recordings of noise rockers World Domination Enterprises.
Album-Stream →Cosas Ilegales - Vol. 2
After the more vicious attack of their 2020 debut album, Mexico City group Cosas Illegales take a sharp turn towards a more melodic, somewhat eggpunk-related approach to their electrically driven garage punk. As before, groups such as S.B.F., Race Car and Kid Chrome might serve as useful comparisons but as of late, i'd add stuff like Prison Affair and Set-Top Box to that list as well as a spoonful of Metal Urbain / Dr. Mix and the Remix.
Album-Stream →Chris Pal - New Weird
There's nothing particularly smart or new about this record to tell you, yet there's plenty of enjoyment to get out of this oldschool garage punk racket, simple and effective, being pulled off by some dude out of Rennes, France. On the genre map, you might locate this shit somewhere in the neighborhood of bands like The Spits, Buck Biloxi, Sick Thoughts, Die TV, Erik Nervous, Stalins Of Sound, Giorgio Murderer and Bart And The Brats.
Album-Stream →Deletions - STETS
It took the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania group a few years to tie up the loose ends and finish the production of this LP but here it finally is, giving us more of their synth-, garage- and post punk that will once again elicit comparisons to Digital Leather - especially the similarity of the singer's voice to DL's Shawn Foree always strikes me as uncanny - although Deletions at this point sound more like a cruder, yet simultaneously pretty straightforward and catchy-as-fuck version of that. In the second half things lean heavier towards the post punk, slightly goth end of things, bearing some similarity to, say, Powerplant, Isotope Soap, Why Bother? or early The Faint as well as some flourishes of Devo and Desparate Bicycles… even a touch of Morricone in Diffuse and Confuse. Not every single effort on here pays off equally well but when they hit the spot, they do it with bravado.
Album-Stream →Bad/Dreems - See You Tomorrow
Hoo Ha! releases May 19th via Farmer & The Owl.
Shop Talk - Camp Hero
The Offering releases April 21st via Mon Amie Records.
Dr. Sure's Unusual Practice - Outside Looking In
Bubble releases April 14th via Marthouse Records.
Why Bother? - Self Indulgent Ways
A City of Unsolved Miseries releases March 31st via Feel It Records.