Knee – Knee

The Debut EP of this Brisbane group delights with four energetic blasts of no-frills garage punk/-core, a hint of death rock in the opening- and closing tracks, some distinct proto punk feel and constant flourishes of sleazy '70s and '80s cock rock - a somewhat unreal sounding mix that reminds me a lot of groups like Cement Shoes, Golden Pelicans, Tarantüla, Flea Collar, Polute and the early days of Electric Chair.

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The Idgets – Demo’d

Quality shit from a Salt Lake City, Utah group on their second tape. Fuzzed-out Lo-Fi hardcore punk whose rough parameters feel kinda predestined for a cassette release on Impotent Fetus or Deluxe Bias, having as much of an oldschool west coast tendency to it as a rough and shambolic KBD vibe, a bit of a Flipper and Broken Talent-style eccentricity and further similarities to more recent groups ranging from the more garage-leaning Launcher, Liquid Assets and Freakees to hardcore artifacts by the likes of Insane Urge, Youth Regiment, Motor Corp und Tupperware.

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Chimers – 3AM

Through Today releases November 8th via Poison City Records.

Kool-Aid – Small Talk

Straight-Up releases November 1st via Flippin' Freaks.

Psychbike – Living In A Shadow

Psychbike releases November 15th via Tetryon Tapes.

Heavy Lungs – Get Out

Caviar releases April 18th via Fat Cat Records.

Second Death – Sycophant

Second Death releases November 15th via La Vida Es Un Mus Discos.

Verspannungskassette #83 (C-90)

Tracklist

Munchkin Head Bimbo
The Caries Company Amor Prohibido
Dick Hick On The Internet (How Did You Know I’m A Neet)
Завірюга Ai, Fuck You
Temporary Curse Not Good Vibes Guy
Oh Telephone Feed Me
T.T.T.T. Mountain King Killed My Car
Outside View Freedom
Midgee I Hope You Get Injured
Krise feat. Sucker Midlife Crisis
Crackups Sgt. Haze
Coffer Cups
Tripe Chip 4 Brains

The Antics Stuck
Gold Cup Honey Boy
The Dumpies Hot Wash
Brass Lip Domestic Splendour
The Losers Working Woman
No Wrong Bottle Opener
Minds Controlled Wasted Life
S.H.I.T. Rotten Column
Faze Cloud 9
Bleaks The Mess
Centipede Turn Around And Die
Pied-de-Biche Cercueil
Conifère IV - Décombres Fumants

Tracklist

The Lipschitz Interestingly
Faux Départ Si tu disparais
Why Bother? Out of Tune
Strange Visitors Death Masque
Human Pyramid Time Skips
Jealous Yellow Baker's Dozen
Data Animal Crime Or Bust
Black & White Cat / Black & White Cake Slipping Away
Coded Marking Amnesty
Glas Nost Gun Haver

Medium Peeking Through The Blinds
Corker Dependency
Metro Amor
Snooper Relay
Lower Slaughter All The Day Long
Cyber Twin I Feel Awful
Stiff Richards GFC
Street Sweeper Don't Wait
1-800-Mikey Digital Pet
Sex Mex Too Young

The Dumpies – Gay Boredom

Astoria, Oregon group The Dumpies have been around for a bit already and have been a thoroughly lovable force ever since, yet their recent split EP with Night Court (of which most songs are also included here) signaled a huge leap forward in terms of energy, stylistic diversity and songwriting potency - a promise they certainly make good on with this incredible new LP, cycling through endless iterations of power pop-infused (garage-)punk, melancholy indie rockers and also numerous attacks of straight-up hardcore punk in a single impressive burst of uncontainable creativity, crude humor and eccentricity. There's not a trace of filler to be found on this record. Every song hits home without fail.

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Corker – Hallways Of Grey

While the previous LP of this Cincinnati, Ohio group - sharing a bunch of members with The Drin of all things - was already an outstanding, albeit not terribly original post punk record, their newest one sees them ascend to a whole new level as their songs and arrangements come accross a lot more focused, eleborate and deliberately built than before, the somewhat overwhelming barrage of the predecessor giving way to a newfound clarity, concise structures and a whole new sense of melody and melancholy most noticeable in tunes like Distant Dawn, Dependency and Nothing in None. Overall, this record is somewhat akin to the most recent Marbled Eye LP, which similarly saw an already pretty fucking awesome group transcend the confines of their genre surroundings. Given all that, it feels a bit cheap and reductive to come up with comparisons but for the sake of orientation i'm just gonna say this is mandatory listening for fans of groups like the aforementioned Marbled Eye, Waste Man, Negative Gears, Rank/Xerox, Tube Alloys, Nag, VR Sex and Public Eye.

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Outside View – Outside View

This exquisitely butt-whooping debut album by Austin, Texas dude Bryan Alchamaa aka Outside View has a whole 15-song all-killer-no-filler package of catchy, partly synth-enhanced and just slightly '77-leaning garage tunes in store for us of which some kinda resemble the straightforward simplicity of Buck Biloxi, The Spits, Bart and the Brats, while others channel the sparkling hymns by the likes of Why Bother?, Deletions, Digital Leather and Lost Sounds.

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Metro – Modern Art

Now that's some fucking brilliant shit! On their debut EP, this swedish group creates the sort of monotonous oldschool post punk that doesn't invent anything new but instead excells all the way in anything they do, with every song on this thing perfectly hitting the spot in a manner equally straightforward and elegant, expertly propelled forward, taking cues from Wire, MX-80 and Crass when it comes to old genre royalty and groups like Nag, Institute from more recent times... also, a hint of The Estranged in the closing track. Simple as that and so, so good!

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1-800 Mikey – Digital Pet

After the overflowing bucket of catchy power pop fun that was the debut LP of this australian dude who's also playing in such high caliber acts as R.M.F.C. and Gee Tee, his newest album delivers more of the same basic goodness while improving on it in all aspects across the board and where previously his tunes may have come across as a bit too uniform, samey and clincal at times, on this one his impeccable songwriting chops shine all the brighter helped along by a perfectly fitting production (also: actual drums, finally!) striking just the right balance between gunk and polish to make his simple garage-/fuzz pop tunes sparkle with joy and energy.

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Coded Marking – Coded Marking

The six tracks of this Leeds, UK group's debut LP take themselves plenty of time to allow for their cold and analytic post punk grooves and textures to sink in and do their work with steady, sprawling, kraut-ish repetition, poured into an overall sonic form that sorta reminds me of postcore- and noise rock leaning acts like John (timestwo), Metz, Cool Jerks and early Greys as much as post punk groups of the Criminal Code and The Cowboy kind, but most of all i'm sensing a lot of kinship with the recent Machiavellian Art LP with these songs kinda playing out like a sped-up, streamlined version of that shit.

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Why Bother? – Hey, At Least You’re Not Me

To me, previous releases of Mason City, Iowa's Why Bother? have usually been a somewhat hit-and-miss kind of affair, although the undeniable highlights no doubt made up for any instance in which the songwriting was just a tad too undercooked or the performance just didn't quite spark. Over time their hits-to-duds ratio has certainly improved though and their newest offering is hands down their strongest set of new catchy-as-fuck tunes so far, as usual melting strikingly simple '77 vibes, scraps of power pop and plenty of contemporary garage- and synth punk into an impressive succession of unstoppable hooks and melodies with quite a bit of stylictic breadth.

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