Having previously come into my view with a fun and quirky debut EP in 2021 as well as a somewhat strained sounding second one in 2023, the group from Krakow, Poland now delivers some of their most well-rounded and beefy blasts of moderately insane, always unpredictable garage- and eggpunk goodness which at one point or another evokes comparisons to such genre greats as Prison Affair, Finale, Beer, Goblin Daycare, Autobahns and even a hint of Snooper is hiding beneath all the the clutter and mayhem.
No unpleasant surprises here, the newest EP of West Palm Beach, Florida group Rude Television is yet another high caliber projectile of catchy, egg-ish garage punk excellence and highly recommended for friends similar shit á la Gee Tee, Erik Nervous, Set-Top Box, Satanic Togas, Power Pants or Tommy Cossack & The Degenerators. Hell, that closing track Rat Bastard may well come to be regarded among the genre's all-time greats in retrospect.
The debut tape via Goodbye Boozy of this Haarlem, Netherlands group is yet another quality release of egg-adjacent, unwieldy garage punk chaos that kinda sounds like a synth-infused Uranium Club in its more streamlined and restrained moments while at other points reaching a level of weirdness akin to infamous garage punk bafflers and headscratchers á la Checkpoint, Pressure Pin, Liquid Face, Skull Cult and Belly Jelly.
Just like on their debut EP, the Ottawa, Ontario group delivers a quick batch of oddball eggpunk chaos which at first glance appears to fit squarely into the genre's established tropes and parameters with groups such as Clarko, Prison Affair, Beer, Beta Maximo and Smirk being some of the obvious comparisons. On closer inspection though, this shit reveals many deeper qualities not least thanks to some pieces of top-notch songcraft, tons unexpectedly catchy hooks and plenty of novel ideas sprinkled throughout. This group is successfully punching way above its proposed weight with tons of musical substance in here to anchor the quirky aesthetics - way more effort under the hood than would be deemed necessary for your average egg artifact.
Hyperdog have already been on my radar thanks to a neat debut LP and two not at all lousy demos, though the austrian group's formula has never clicked into place as nicely as on their newest extended play cassette via Goodbye Boozy Records. This is is fuzzy garage punk with at times uncharacteristically relaxed tempos and a glittering psychedelic surface that reminds me a lot of Beta Máximo's sparkling noise pop color splashes.
Salt Lake City, Utah group Gonk have been raising eyebrows on the periphery of the eggpunk wave for a good while now and their full length debut gives plenty of evidence for them as a perfectly worthy force and addition to the scene. Although these songs don't add anything new to the game, every single one simply hits the spot and admirers of quirky, catchy artifacts by acts like Shrudd, Billiam, Music For Microwaves and Power Pants can't go wrong here.
New shit by Midgee? Awesome, i'll have two. Wait what, it also has new tunes by Electric Prawns 2? Just shut up and take my money! Melbourne's Midgee once again prove to be a safe bet for fans of quirky synth-/garage-/eggpunk goodness in the vein of Prison Affair, Nuts, Set-Top Box or Beer. Quite a bit more ambitious and varied then are the four tunes by Moffat Beach garage sensation Electric Prawns 2, although on this one they mostly act on the sunnier side of their musical spectrum in a set of compact and catchy-as-hell smashers that exhibit many of the virtues of recent Billiam or Alien Nosejob.
Following up on their stellar previous EP, this (probably) Austin, Texas group delivers a way more crude and unpolished - yet no less exciting - batch of new tunes located in the more eccentric spheres of the garage-/synth-/eggpunk spectrum. Less catchy overall but more high-energy instead, this makes for a more than serviceable successor to a plainly sensational record that's been a decidedly tough act to follow anyway and even as the lesser of the two, it's still a freakin' increadible bit of eccentric noise to be perfectly honest.
Always great fun, a new EP courtesy of Ukraine's best address for quirky and catchy eggpunk goodness that evokes the aesthetic pillars of Prison Affair, Beer, Set-Top Box, Autobahns, Goblin Daycare, Midgee... yeah, this particular sub-branch of the genre is shaping up to become a remarkably international affair and it's such a joy to watch it all play out over time.
Now if you thought the 2022 EP of this Montreal group was kinda weird and bananas, Pressure Pin be like: "Hold my beer" 'cos you've seen nothing yet! For their second EP, they considerably raise the bar both in terms of sophistication and of unpredictable chaos and mayhem in their totally nuts compositions whose rough characteristics hover somewhere around the spheres of garage-, synth-, art- and eggpunk with a pronounced element of devocore, all the while being hellbent on nuking the confines of those genres respectively. This kind of eclectic anything-goes approach reminds me most of recent works by Trashdog and Checkpoint, though if you take it one stylistic ingredient at a time, you might also find bits and pieces of the '90s-midi-style pop excursions of Metdog, the Devo-isms of recent Isotope Soap, the sparkling joy of Snooper and the quirky, catchy garage-/art punk explosions of Smirk and Cherry Cheeks. These dudes put more ideas and inspiration in a single tune than your average garage act does in a whole album.
