This London group recorded their debut LP in a single day at Abbey Road. Does that actually matter all that much? I don’t think so but anyway, this thing sounds kinda neat, unexpectedly raw and unpolished. Right out of the gate, Defenestration greets us with a melodic and slightly folk-ish post punk vibe somewhere inbetween the worlds of Mission Of Burma, Sebadoh, Volcano Suns, Angst, Polvo or Medications, followed by a somewhat Wire-esque post punk exercise with hints of mid-2000s Indie Rock in Sinnes, the latter of which places this among my least favorite things on here along with the somewhat sleepy and undercooked Cruel Tutelage. Thankfully, Liar then picks up speed again in a mix of oldschool garage punk and a Mudhoney-esque Fuzz Punk-/Neo-Grunge vibe, some of which also resonates through the straightforward punk smasher Bumble Been before Red Fuzz leads into the overall much stronger secod half of the album with its catchiest pop tune so far. Pink Liquor then is a compact no-frills burst of noisy garage punk excellence and Automated Response sounds like yet another early Wire tribute right out of the Pink Flag Playbook, a much more well-balanced one this time though. Cavern Killer adds a bit of a rather contemporary sounding post punk and noise rock vibe to the mix before I Love You ends the record with a flawless oldschool oddity of the heavily ’77 and KBD-influenced variety.
This Cleveland, Ohio group weaves compact and simple gems of moderately spaced-out, egg-ish garage- and synth punk into a neat little package of catchy delirium that reminds me of a quite colorful bunch of groups á la Metdog, The Gobs, SGATV, Sex Mex, Hyperdog, Beta Máximo or Apero and this shit is every bit as good as any of these.
If there ever was such a thing as a covid bump for any artist, that must’ve been the case for Brooklyn healthpunk one-man-band Dr. Dence, although they already predated the pandemic by a good bit and certainly are still kinda topical with America going through a whole new wave of public health insanity. Anyway, the dude’s newest EP presents him in what may be his best form yet, every one of these four slightly oldschool egg-ish smashers being a rock-solidly engineered burst of expertly shredding no-frills catchy garage punk goodness.
Here’s yet another new nicho for you that’s so top fucking secret you can find it on bandcamp! On the successor to last year’s Dining Nothing / Sin Agenda Para La Muerte single, the group from Rosario, Argentinia delivers more of that same greatness drenched in the murky waters of eighties post-, garage- and art punk with an additional layer of fuzzy psychedelia on top that makes this record a neat companion piece to that recent Zulo EP which, coincidentally, has been released just a couple weeks prior on the very same local boutique label, Fake Sex Tape.
Last year’s WE R TY EP was among that year’s outstanding releases in the realm of varyingly egg-ish garage-, post- and art punk and the detroit group’s newest EP can’t disappoint either with the operner Stuck having a distinct ’77-adjacent quality somewhat akin to the earliest Vaguess records and indeed the previously quite prominent eggpunk elements get dialed down here considerably in favor of a more rustic and raw sound, more proplsive than ever before. Oh, and there’s a Jimi Hendrix cover which ain’t too embarrassing either, though the real meat here is in these three relentlessly catchy original tunes, that’s for sure.
Our favorite ukrainian eggpunk odditiy Завірюга sure have shaken up their sound a good bit for their newest EP, doing away with the guitars altogether so the bass really takes center stage this time, complemented by minimalist synths and electronics that overall push these songs in a slighty noise rock- and industrial-leaning direction, resulting in what i consider their strongest and freshest record in a good while. Keep an eye on these dudes, you never know what they’re up to next.
Kickass new shit from what appears to be a Melbourne-based duo… or trio? I dunno, the info on bandcamp is a bit ambiguous in that regard. Also, Billiam was involved in capturing this noise. which so far has always been a good omen too. Anyway, these two tunes are right up my alley with that noisy and blown-out fuzz- and garage punk sound that sounds a bit as if The Gobs got fused with a bit of that eighties noise rock- and proto-grunge energy of groups á la X (AUS), Scratch Acid, Fungus Brains, U-Men or Feedtime.
Not too long after their already quite joyous third EP, the Kalamazoo, Michigan group is already following up on that with an even stronger 2-track digital single that once again feels like a throwback to the glory days of ’80s-to-mid-’90s post punk, college-, indie- and alternative rock with the likes of Mission Of Burma, My Dad Is Dead, Sebadoh or Volcano Suns looming large over the opening track Party Store, while Good People sounds a bit like Flipper or Broken Talent filtered through a more approachable early Mudhoney- or mid-’90s Royal Trux vibe.
New noises from a dude who’s not only been playing in a whole shit-ton of highly regarded Berlin-based groups like Benzin, Pigeon, Liiek, Molde and Deltoids over the years but has also been cooking up his own very own little musical treats as a solo act under the Dee Bee Rich or DBR moniker for many years now. Two years after his previous self-titled tape already marked a huge step ahead from the more scrappy and quirky DIY Lo-Fi aesthetics of earlier releases towards a more coherent and fleshed-out musical vision, his newest LP shows further refinement and an expanded breadth of stylistic flourishes and influences. While the opener Smirched could well pass for an (excellent) outtake from that last Liiek album, Unacceptable already surprises us in spicing up the familiar post punk formula with some kinda ’77-ish guitar leads. Pool then adds a melodic sensibility to it of a kind you’d rather expect from more recent Institute releases for example, followed by Hold Me Tight on which this record finally reaches full catchy pop equilibrium, no doubt the most impressive demonstration of a matured songwriting craft that oozes out of every pore here and elevates every second of this killer record.
Anything these Londoners have touched so far has been a fuckin’ treat from day one and it still holds true now on their first full-length effort, even though they may have somewhat streamlined their sound in the meantime and traded in some of their early fuzzy garage- and Hot Snakes-esque postcore vibes for something of an Oi! and classic eighties punk- and hardcore-affine aesthetic. That said, what’s always stayed the same in their discography though is the straightforwardly constructed but always structurally sound nature of their catchy and thoroughly whippin’ punk attacks and there’s no lack of that on this record either, which starts out strong and only gets better from there, as they’ve saved up some of their most infectious tunes for the second half here. Once again this is some must-listen shit for admirers of such groups as Ascot Stabber, Beast Fiend, Crisis Man or Wymyns Prysyn just to name a few.
