Don't expect anything groundbreaking here 'cos with Power Pants you always know exactly what you're gonna get and even the freakin' early Ramones arguably had more stylistic breadth than this group. Yet, their songs never miss the mark and this entirely unfussy formula of catchy garage punk remains insanely appealing to me and as long as we continually get delivered tunes as potent as May I Rest or You're Invited, i'm gonna gratefully devour each new sugary health hazard Power Pants throw at me. Woof!
The third EP of this Brooklyn, NY group is hands down their most ripe effort to date and strikes a delicate balance between more blunt and straightforward garage-infused hardcore punk smashers and more eleborate postcore tunes which call to mind such weirdo acts as Mystic Inane, Launcher or Rolex, keeping us on on the edge of our seats with a constant sense of unpredictability.
This Montreal group featuring Members of Puffer and Béton Armé unveils a fully evolved and classy vision on their second Tape following up on their admirable, if still a bit rough-around-the-edges 2023 Demo. The opener Insoutenable comes dashing right out of the gate with a pronounced Radio Birdman and early New Christs kind of energy which is joined by more contemporary sounding elements of melodic post punk á la The Estranged and Dead Finks, having much of a folk-ish, roots-y quality to it. Another standout is Rien ne t'empêchera, which strikes me as a perfect fusion of a catchy oldschool Oi! singalong with jangly power pop.
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!
Less than a week into the new year, Erste Theke Tonträger has already put out 2025's first blockbuster release... digitally, at least. The Ghoulies from Perth, Australia are among those groups where it feels like they've been around for much longer than they actually were, having conquered their own little space inside the garage-/synth-/eggpunk gamut - not at all by considerably shaking up its foundations but rather by perfecting existing playbooks to their maximum sophistication and impact, plus, they always have the bewitching tunes to make it all stick. At many points, their sound is vaguely reminiscent somewhat oldschool-ish artifacts predating the whole eggpunk umbrella term á la early Ausmuteants, Quitter, Drug Sweat, while perfectly fitting in with more recent shit like Cherry Cheeks, Satanic Togas, Research Reactor Corp., Gee Tee, Kitchen People or Tommy Cossack & The Degenerators all the same.
Krystian Quint may be best known in association with Detroit garage punks The Stools. On his full-band debut under the Quitters moniker however, his tunes take a way more catchy and melancholy direction, largely alternating between two distinct modes of operation, one of 'em radiating the vibes of melodic garage punk acts like Sonic Avenues, Cheap Whine, Marked Men, Bad Sports, Sweet Reaper or, most recently, Eye Ball and The Dumpies. The other one is more reminiscent of moderately emo-ish nineties indie rock á la early Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, Sebadoh, Lync and Seam as far as the old guard is concerned, or of more recent stuff like Tape/Off, Treehouse and Pardoner.
Hattiesburg label Earth Girl Tapes has yet another delicious treat for us, namely the debut tape of Chicago group Cucuy which delivers six blows of noisy and beautifully oddball hard- and postcore, balancing chaos and dissonance with way-above-average musicality, all of which calls to mind such offbeat classics as the early works of Minutemen, Really Red and Saccharine Trust, but just as much does this shit have in common with newer phenomena such as Rolex, Launcher or Mystic Inane.
Excellent shit emanating out of some cellar in Bremen, Germany. This group's own make of propulsive garage punk plays out a bit like a mixture of more or less hardcore-infused acts like Vexx, Warm Bodies, Fugitive Bubble, Sniffany and the Nits, Warp, Skin Tags and Dots on one hand, heavier egg-leaning groups á la Cel Ray, Snooper, Prison Affair, Autobahns and Beer on the other.
Having already released a whole ass full of nifty EPs and splits neatly fitting in with much of the the current eggpunk mold, their previous one recently marked a notable departure into a rougher, fuzzed-out aesthetic form. The newest release by this group based in Rome, Italy feels like a successful integration of both tendencies, sharing a similar quality to weirdo tunes by the likes of Die TV, Electric Prawns 2, Temporary Curse and recent Erik Nervous.
The time between the years is - as far as punk rock is concerned - usually defined by those rather tiny and more obscure nuggets, scraps and crumbs that randomly pop up. Same thing this year, so here's a little roundup of some of the curious little short-playing treats that washed up in the last few weeks.
London's Rifle already delighted with two excellent EPs before and their newest one is another full-on blast inbetween the worlds of garage punk, postcore and old KBD-related noise somewhat reminiscent of groups as diverse as Ascot Stabber, early Golden Pelicans, Mystic Inane, Launcher and Rolex. Madrid group Raya, whose debut EP a couple already left me impressed a couple months ago, has another two-track single out now and guess what, it's yet another excellent burst of quirky garage-/eggpunk most reminiscent of other spanish acts like Pringue, Finale and Prison Affair but also international bands like Beer, Set-Top Box and Gremlin. Vacation from Cincinnati have long proven to be a treasure trove of high-octane songcraft in the realms of Power Pop, oldschool Indie Rock, Garage- and Fuzz Punk and their track on a new split single is another high-caliber weapon in their arsenal. The other track by Madison, Wisconsin post punkers Whippets is also really fucking good, reminding me a lot of canadian groups Dead Cells and that recent Psychbike LP. Another high-class gem comes to us in the form of a new 7" by Perth group Pleasants who set off another two explosions of simple and confident power pop that admirers of the likes of Teen Line, Bad Sports, Tommy and the Commies, Mr. Teenage or Corner Boys shouldn't miss. Speaking of catchy tunes, english group Cream Soda have two more of those on their debut 7" via Spinout Nuggets. They have equal amounts of both a Buzzcocks- and Television Personalities-energy to them or alternately, you might name old US underground acts like Broken Talent or more recent shit like Britain's The Suburban Homes and Silicone Values, Australia's Nasty Party or earlier stuff of canadian greats Neutrals as reasonably valid references. And finally, there's another high quality bit of heavy metal-infused fun from Austin's Ninth Circle. It's been an interesting last few years as i actually wouldn't have thought - having lived through the embarrassing, metalcore-infested period from the late '90s to '00s - that the marriage of punk and metal-related sounds would ever produce any more offspring i could get behind, being forever tainted by the era's blunt moshing and cringy display of hypermasculine rage. But here i am in the 2020s, regularly finding much delight in metal-ish sounds from bands that aren't necessarily named Poison Ruïn. Having ignored the metal industrial complex for a long time, i'm severely impaired when it comes to naming any references so i'm just ganna say these two songs fucking rip and that's all you need to know anyway.
So, that's it for this year. As usual i'm gonna take a 2-3 weeks long vacation from blogging and you'll hear back from me when next year's release machine gets into gear again. See you in whatever depressing abomination the year 2025 is shaping up to be.
