Last December's Debut EP Shoot Me I'm Plain of this Chico, California group was such a thorougly pleasant surprise coming pretty much out of nowhere and i actually have absolutely nothing new to say now about their first full length record which has just dropped. Once again, this is an insanely appealing and more than just competent variant of that last-decade schtick made up of elements of super-catchy fuzz punk, noise pop and psychedelic surf vibes. A sound that's become a bit scarce in more recent years but keeps cropping up every now and then in the most unlikely places, like stubborn weeds proving themselves hard to root out entirely by an unsympathetic zeitgeist. Think early Wavves, Male Bonding, No Age, early Terry Malts or Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! in addition to such surfboard-wielding indie- and psych rockers á la Crystal Stilts, Surfer Blood and The Fresh And Onlys. That kind of shit.
Yet another kickass split 7" coming to us via Goodbye Boozy records. On it, Leipzig, Germany group Autobahns set off one oldschool hardcore smasher followed by an angular garage punk hit with a slightly southern-ish flavor. Speaking of southern-ish - that is exactly one of the garage punk sub-niches Elvis 2 have been occupying for just over a year now and the two new songs of the australian garage-/fuzz punk group are more of that addictive shit that had us begging for more pretty much ever since their first digital single cropped up on bandcamp, an Elvis 2-shaped hole in our hearts which their recent debut LP still ain't nearly enough to fully occupy.
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.
Newcastle, Australia based garage punk goofball Robbie Thunder's shit remains a thoroughly charming affair on his seventh LP in just over two years and holy cow, has this one reached a new level with its strikingly simple and minimalist, somewhat Ramones-ish fuzzed out punk smashers as the hits just keep coming here and where previous releases sometimes could feel a little samey, this one just strikes the perfect balance of familiarity, sufficient variety and brevity - with its barely 15 minutes long duration feeling like the perfect length for a crunchy little potato chip of a record like this.
Three incredible tracks dumped on bandcamp over the course of the past one-and-a-half years made us hungry for more tunes of this Melbourne group and i'm pleased to say that this new probably-not-quite-an-LP's worth material (including the aforementioned singles) fulfills all of the pretty high expectations. What Steröid do to eighties Metal, this group pulls off with regards to '70s hard-, southern rock, a couple of other dad rock-ish vibes and transforms it into an only slightly egg-ish, maximally fuzzed-out aesthetic of ultra-catchy garage punk and power pop with an unusual knack for infectious guitar leads - a glorious non-stop barrage of captivating riffs, resilient hooks and stubborn earworms, in an unlikely way combining some of the traits of, say, Sheer Mag's early EPs and more recent shit by Satanic Togas.
This Evesham, New Jersey Group has already racked up a substantial bandcamp discography but damn, is this new LP a massive jump in quality! On it, they craft a wall of catchy noise pop and fuzz punk inbetween the worlds 2000s-'10s noise pop and indie rock acts á la Milk Music, Male Bonding, No Age on one hand and golden-era '80s Dinosaur Jr. on the other, though with the particular distinction that every single tune on here seems inspired by Lou Barlow's desperate growls and screams in that brutal closing track of the Bug LP, Don't, rather than the introverted nasal voice of J Mascis. Also, there's a some oldschool My Bloody Valentine action going on in Boy Christening and Mark Prindle has a bit of The Wedding Present being sent into noisy blown-out post punk hellscape.
Oooh-kay, so this is supposed to be the new project of some old british-american punk geezer but to be perfectly honest, i'm fairly positive that you can't take anything of what's written on their bandcamp page at face value. Anyway, this is some ripping shit. It's a noisy, fuzzed out explosive concoction of garage- and post punk with just a smidge of '90s indie rock and old britisch DIY thrown in for good measure. Devotees of actually not-that-old groups á la Shark Toys, Tyvek, Parquet Courts and earlier Cloud Nothings are gonna approve of this.
This second EP by Esmé Newman aka Glitter On The Mattress from Gateshead, England delivers four perfect little sugary treats of catchy oldschool noise-/indie-/fuzz pop goodness that would only need a bit of added tape hiss to successfully fool me into thinking this were some lost artifact of '80s DIY cassette culture. At the same time, this shit also has undeniable similarities to some groups of the past two decades like Feature, UV-TV, Private Lives, Slowcoaches, Star Party, early Vivian Girls or, quite recently, Indonesia's own Crayon Cats. No question, unpretentious fuzzy DIY pop is alive and well in this age!
This new LP by some Elkhart, Indiana dude sees a strikingly simple and time-honored formula getting fucked up to absolute perfection, taking on a sound inbetween the worlds of garage- and hardcore punk, some KBD-leaning eccentricities and a hint of synth-/electro punk in Vacant, succeeding simply by way of overloading our senses with a thick layer of blown-out noise and fuzz. Having a number of high-octane instances of timeless catchy punk excellence like Not A Toy to rely on sure doesn't hurt either, making for twenty glorious minutes of slightly Lumpy & The Dumpers-esque fuckery which, of more recent years, has also some kinship to groups like Small Portions, Yacht Fire, Dick Hick, Power Shovel and Delta 8.
This neat little tape by some Leicester, UK based weirdo excites with a rowdy aesthetic blown-out within an inch of its life that rapidly alternates between wonderfully shambolic hardcore parts and more garage-leaning fuzz punk sketches almost conjuring up some sort of oldschool Lumpy & The Dumpers-like quality. Music to my ears!
