(…) as focused as they haven't been in a long while (…) i wrote about their previous album Smile Building's Exit. Tempe, Arizona group Soft Shoulder then be like: "Hold my beer…" and come around the corner with yet another LP, recorded around the same time as its predecessor and presenting their sound in an even more snappy and compelling light. Their unique blend consisting of both contemporary and ancient post punk magic tricks, oldschool noise rock and distinctly no wave- and '80s The Fall-informed noise experiments has never had more catchy appeal and sparkle than on this record.
Luxury new fodder for garage- and eggpunk aficinados by this Cincinati, Ohio group. Soft Violence and Why Fight resonate the quirky madness of groups like Prison Affair, Nuts, Beer, Cherry Cheeks and Pringue but extend that aesthetic with a distinct psychedelic feel transported mainly through the polyphonic vocals here. The latter tendencies are also leaving their mark on Null Future, which expertly treads in oldschool garage punk territory resulting in a vibe á la Mononegatives with a more purist fuzz punk edge. Closing track It Goes On, then, closely resembles the kraut-y psyched-out post punk vibes of fellow Cincinnati groups The Drin and The Serfs, suggesting some of the same folks might be at work here.
After a promising demo followed by what struck me as a kinda rushed sounding debut EP struggling to add substance and shape to their rather basic rock'n'roll formula, the Perth group's first full length finally has them operating right in the goldilocks zone again. Granted, this still ain't the most original thing garage punk has ever seen but these songs simply work and it's hard not to be excited by their frantic energy coming across a bit like a mix of early Nervosas, Vexx, Ex-Cult and, more recently, Cel Ray with further bits and pieces reminiscent of groups á la Piss Test, The Neuros, Gen Pop and The Abandos.
That's the dude from The Uglies barking here, right? These australians' new EP ain't entirely dissimilar to the latter group's output, pushing the whole thing into a more quirky, adventurous direction though, frequently having some Useless Eaters or Knowso feel to it in addition to quite a bit of musty dungeon-esque vibes throughout the whole thing.
Two current powerhouses of weirdo garage- and synth punk join forces for this neat new little EP and guess what: It sounds exactly like you'd expect and all i can further say is what the fuck is not to like about that proposition? The shit rules!
Bamm! Exquisite new shit in the realms of garage-infested oldschool hardcore mayhem brought to us by a group from Perth, Australia, reminding me of acts in the vein of G.U.N., early Electric Chair, Cement Shoes, Crisis Man, Cülo and Chain Whip.
Spanish noise pop overlords Beta Maximo return with a strong new batch of tunes. Hard to believe their prolific output began just sometime last summer… Starting out with what i'd consider more of an eggpunk-aesthetic, they've constantly kept changing things up, gradually evolving into a somewhat slower, dreamy and slightly shoegaze-y direction and these new songs strike me as the most realized and well-rounded stuff we've heard from them recently.
Whatever there is to be found out about this Cincinnati, Ohio group is cloaked in a veil of uncertainty, not helped in the least by that kinda stereotypical "loser band" history given on this cassette's bandcamp page. So, probably, there are folks known from groups like The Serfs, The Drin, Crime of Passing and Motorbike at work here and at least some of the songs on this can be traced back to the year 2019, when they first appeared on the Pedestrian Sentiments EP. Otherwise i'm really not too sure if any of the details given are to be believed. You can't argue with the music though, which kicks ass from start to finish, in some way evoking the aesthetics, varying fidelity and stylistic variety of golden era Guided By Voices, otherwise roughly oscillating between jangly power pop in the vein of, say, Bed Wettin' Bad Boys or Bad Sports in tracks like Coward Of The State, Wannabe (A Star) and Silver Queen; grimy psychedelic garage rock (Didn't Win The Lottery, Obnoxious And A Neu) as well as a couple of catchy melodic garage punk smashers carrying the signature of groups á la Booji Boys, Tyvek and Parquet Courts. It's Been A Bad Week kinda resembles the garage-drenched noise aesthetics of A Place To Bury Strangers, Peyton's Kids has sort of a Woolen Men feel to it and throughout, the folk-infused post punk of earlier Chronophage comes to mind more than once.
Always a thing of beauty, a new LP by Detroit's wildly influential pioneers of the mid-aughts to 2010s wave of US garage punk groups. The first thing catching your ear on this one is the added saxophone of Emily Roll, adding s slightly different kind of texture to this release. Otherwise, this is the signature Tyvek sound we all know and love, made up of kinda simplistic yet equally razor sharp riffs and hooks counteracted by their somewhat loose and sloppy, relaxed and strummy presentation, all of which surley served as an inspiration to later groups of the Strange Attractor, Parquet Courts, Shark Toys or UV Race variety!
Yet another kickass EP by Chicago's Cel Ray, picking right up where they left off on their Cellular Raymond EP earlier this year. I might be repeating myself here but once again their inventive and playful sound kinda strikes me as a combination of some of the past decade's greatest female fronted groups á la Vexx, BB and the Blips, Negative Scanner, Gen Pop or Amyl and the Sniffers on one hand, while also being somewhat reminiscent of that current breed of squiggly garage-meets-post punk groups like Uranium Club, Reality Group, Patti, Dumb or R.M.F.C..
