The sound of this New Orleans garage punk powerhouse has gone through some phases and permutations in the past already and once again twiddles the knobs a good bit for their newest EP which, while recognisably springing from the same minds, takes on much of the sonic guise of a NWOBHM-inspired hardcore- and motörpunk speed rush particulary on the first and last tunes, while the middle one somewhat closer resembles that couple of solo-recorded singles and demos released over the course of 2025, reinforced with the added oomph of a tight-as-fuck full-band performance. The closing track Socialized – also previously known as one of these 2025 demo tunes, has evolved so much for the version included here you could easily consider it a different tune altogether if it didn’t have most of the original lyrics still in in place.
That Aidmoozic EP too short for you? This Ackland, New Zeeland group has yet another batch of heavily british DIY punk-flavored strummery for us following a somewhat more basic yet perfectly effective formula that just can’t conceal the amount of Desperate Bicycles, Mekons and Television Personalities-worship at the core of it with maybe an occasional sprinkle of Buzzcocks for good measure or, if you wanna go like one or two levels deeper, Performing Ferrets, possibly? Anyway, concerning somewhat more recent acolytes, i’d say the UK’s own Suburban Homes are probably the closest match here.
The successor to the Astoria, Oregon group’s incredible 2024 Gay Bordom LP doesn’t quite reach the same level of originality and playful creativity, playing it a bit safer and at times veering a bit too close to pop punk territory for my taste, but for what it is, this is actually a pretty neat record in its own right still, the songs ranging between servicable and pretty freakin’ good and still spanning a good deal of sonic variety so yeah… this is a strong enough follow-up to a larger-than-life record that would’ve been kind of a tough act to follow for pretty much anyone and it almost feels a bit unfair to not judge this new one on its own merits. It is what it is and that’s still pretty fucking good, even if we know this group can do much better.
This Fort Collins, Colorado group delivers six blows of rough as fuck hardcore punk whose rustic aesthetics can’t do anything to obscure the catchy garage punk foundations underlying the whole thing, the smart postcore overtones being peppered all throughout and the numerous surprises and compositional quirks it has up its sleeve. This is a record sounding a lot dumber at first glance than it actually is and you know i’m a sucker for that kind of shit.
The Tampa, Florida group had a neat little demo out late last year already and their newest EP now too sound’s like they mean business with six fresh attacks of rabid and primal hardcore punk built on top of a strong fuzzed-out, KBD-ish garage punk foundation, the singer’s bitten dog vocals almost channelling the insanity of that classic Lumpy & The Dumpers- and Fried E/M era it’s main perpetrator would apparently like to disassiciate from but i’m not gonna let him. Once a Lumpy, forever a Lumpy.
On the excellent demo tape by this group from Shrewsbury, UK, proto- meets garage punk and occasional flashes of NWOBHM-style solos, Stooges meet Saints meet Discharge but also plenty of more recent acts of the Punter, Puffer and Split System variety. A perfect storm of simplicity, raw energy and immediate catchyness.
Well, it took like a year longer than promised but better late than never i guess, here’s finally a new LP of Stockholm’s synth punk bulwark that’s been around for roughly a decade already. So they’ve got nothing to prove at this point anyway and simply deliver yet another brilliant collection of spaced-out garage punk delicacies filled with their trademark Devo-isms and bookended by a couple of somewhat John Carpenter-esque instrumentals to underscore the pervasive cinematic qualities of this record, another killer one at that.
Here we have a marvellous debut LP from a Berlin-based group that – after a post punk-ish instrumental intro reminding me in equal parts of The Estranged and oldschool west coast punk of the Adolescents, Germs and Agent Orange variety – mostly settles into a heavily Spits-indebted, occasianally somewhat Ramones-ish garage punk sound enriched with a certain space punk ingredient reminiscent of such groups as Corpus Earthling, Silicon Heartbeat, Stalins of Sound, Zoids and Mateo Manic or, fairly recently, Shrudd, Zulo and Electric Prawns 2, although the aforementioned post punk vibes also return occasionally in tunes like Freiheit and Vittima. Seamlessly glued together by rock-solid songwriting qualities throughout, this makes for a flawless all-killer record getting the optimal bang for the buck out of a time-tested oldschool formula.
On their second album, this grop from the small town of Torquay, Australia – just a stone’s throw from Geelong and still within comfortable driving distance from Melbourne – sets off ten punchy instances of dead-aim Garage Punk of the almost stereotypically australian-sounding variety that seems equally indebted to Saints, Birdman and New Christs as to some classic AC/DC-style shredding and regarding more recent happenings, the likes of Split System, Pist Idiots and the earlier works of Civic heavily suggest themselves here as comparisons or, in a way, this may also kinda be the record those disappointed by the shockingly lifeless latest Mini Skirt LP would have wished for. This is some completely old-fashioned Rock’n’Roll that largely plays by the established rules but makes it all work thanks to a neverending stream of catchy hooks and determined performances.
Once again a real knockout tape brought to us by the reliable New York purveyor of varyingly punk-related eccentricities, Fuzzy Warbles Cassettes. The opening track No Kill Means immediatelty radiates kind of an art punk vibe á la Television-meet-Ruts or more recently, Peace de Résistance or later Institute. Soft Change then takes a way more abstract, minimalist post punk route, quite cold and rigid but kinda funky at the same time. Cave One is a relatively straightforward, but by no means dumb, scrap of catchy garage punk and so is All Skill Levels with its equally post- and proto punk-ish vibes and an additional layer of dissonant noise. Great Pastures compresses some of these same traits into an unexpectedly catchy and compact little package of tangentially Sonic Youth-esque buzz. Anticev then surprises with a lot of a surf rock feel. And so it goes on… this is an eclectic grab bag of a record that pulls a new surprise out of its hat at every corner and quite woundrously doesn’t drop the ball even once but rather feels weirdly coherent and methodical in its shapeshifting approach.
