Reuben Sawyer has been active for quite a while already with various groups and projects in a wide variety of musical styles, though he only really entered the 12XU universe in 2023 with Demons Obey, his third LP under the Anytime Cowboy moniker, which has been a strange beast for sure in juxtaposing elements of blues-ish and jangly cowpunk- and garage pop with a somewhat surreal, otherworldly quality anchored by Sawyer’s uncannily calm vocal delivery. His newest LP now may as well be his strongest, most accomplished one yet, streamlining his previously somewhat cluttered disjointed sonic space into an unexpectedly cohesive whole, making his equally odd, catchy and melancholic compositions – enabled by some next-level songwriting chops – glow and sparkle like never before.
So here we have the debut EP of a new group from Berlin featuring members of Les Lullies and Slander Tonge among others, confidently acing their way through four flawless tunes of jangly power pop elegance. This is a genre that lives and dies by the quality of the songwriting and these folks pull out all the stop to make it work… the tunes, the arrangements, the performances. Simple as that.
On their, like, hundredth release in just about three short years, this Minessota group has crafted an enchanting sonic landscape of timeless cool, combining elements of relaxed and strummy, insanely catchy indie rock and noise pop with just a tiny hint of shoegaze and Sarah Records-esque oldschool indie pop to insanely appealing results, which at times come across like a mix of the more power pop-ish ends of the Bevis Frond Spectrum, Flying Saucer Attack, LoFi-era Guided By Voices and a smidge of Eric’s Trip, Sebadoh and Archers Of Loaf maybe? Also there’s some quality akin to the more psychedelic side of eighties Flying Nun Records á la The Clean and The Stones. Moving on to increasingly more recent references, you may also sense lots of kinship to the densely foggy sonics of early Rat Columns or The Molds, the dreamy indie rock of Treehouse, the early works of Male Bonding, Wavves or, most recently, the Lo-Fi haze of Italy’s Purp and the catchy-as-fuck indie rock / noise pop hymns of Vacation.
This Sydney group has an embarrassment of riches in store for us that’s being poured into a sonic guise of timeless elegance here – heavy duty power pop songwriting chops take on the shapes of Byrds-inspired, relaxed garage rock, british invasion- and first wave british psychedelia-fueled jangle pop anthems which often come across like a less sarcastic variant of The Soft Boys, a more retro-minded Guided By Voices or the more powerpop-ish corners of the Bevis Frond galaxy, though you may just as well compare them to more recent, mostly US-based groups like The Resonars, White Fence, Honey Radar, Good Flying Birds, Chronophage, Violent Change, Scupper, Germ House or Mo Troper, while in more indie rock-leaning tunes like Winston you can sense just a little hint of fellow australians Treehouse.
This Varese, Italy group follows up a fun demo from two years ago with an even stronger digital two-track single. Go Skate evokes the pounding electro punk aesthetics of, say, Spyroids, Freak Genes, O-D-EX or the most recent Shrudd EP. H82W8 then has more of a fluffy garage pop vibe much in the vein of groups such as Slimex, Daughter Bat and the Lip Stings, Ghoulies, Gee Tee and Busted Head Racket, among many others.
For our weekly dose of egg-related brainfuck, some dude or group from Charleston, South Carolina is volunteering and they’ve brought beer with them, nice! Though not exactly reinventing the wheel here, this is another rock solid new package of quirky funky lo-fi garage pop goodness that fans of shit á la Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, Nuts, Eugh or Pringue are guaranteed to have a massive ball with.
Not long after the recent 7″ on Goodbye Boozy Records we get the first LP of Sydney’s Tee Vee Repairman on that other garage punk powerhouse label Total Punk. As you might’ve guessed this is another juicy treat of simple and stupid melodic garage punk and power pop delight well suited for fans of shit like Bad Sports, Tommy and the Commies and Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys while of the dude’s own other projects, you might be most reminded of a sugar-coated version of Satanic Togas or recent R.M.F.C..
An overflowing bucket of joy, the newest LP(ette) by some duo from Montreuil, France, generating a mixture melodic of garage punk, oldschool indie rock, fuzz- and jangle pop reminding me of a diverse group of more-or-less recent acts á la Dumb Punts, Woolen Men, Hermetic, Landlines, The Exbats, Tape/Off… or maybe a more down-to-earth P.S. I Love You, aswell as old indie rockers of the Superchunk, Archers Of Loaf variety. This record serves as a perfect reminder that you don’t need to stage a huge spectacle if you just deliver on the melodies that stick.
This montreal group’s debut EP delights with a batch of fairly melodic, simple-and-effective little smashers in the realm of garage pop, fuzz- and post punk reminding me of a particular cluster of groups from a few years ago including acts such as Feature, Negative Scanner, Slowcoaches and UV-TV. Also, in Get Loose, there’s a distinct Wire vibe at play here and y’all know i’m a sucker for that kind of shit.
Whoa, i didn’t really expect that record to be this fucking good – a hot contender for my favorite power pop record of 2022, plain and simple. Like a curious eggfolk Resonars or Bevis Frond, these songs also radiate the melancholy, dreamy vibes of Lost Balloons with little hints of early Guided By Voices, Soft Boys, Honey Radar or Woolen Men added to the mix for good measure. The quirky and blown-out lo-fi aesthetics simply can’t do anything to lessen the impact and beauty of the superb songwriting chops on display here.
