A new EP by Drew Owen aka Sick Thoughts and if you didn't expect sheer garage punk excellence at this point, better think again 'cos this record fucking delivers! The opening salvo Sick Thoughts is kind of a hardcore smasher suddenly taking a sharp turn into some distinct Ramones-meet-Cheap Trick territory. Hellraiser is pure '77-drenched power pop ecstasy with a thin icing of Hüsker Dü or Moving Targets on top. The seventy-seven-ish vibes then reach their apex in Schoolgirls in Chains, while My Heart is Breaking Over You is exactly the kind of unhealthy sugar rush that might just become a bit too much of everything in the hands of lesser songwriters and performers but shines here all the brighter by virtue of the rock-solid songcraft evident.
Montreal group New Vogue follow-up their excellent self-titled 2020 mini LP with another batch of kickass tunes - way more synth-heavy this time yet every bit as infectious as before, radiating a constantly shapeshifting kind of vibe calling to mind bits and pieces of Freak Genes, Useless Eaters, Powerplant, Andy Human and The Reptoids, Lost Sounds, Mononegatives and Alien Nosejob, to name just a few high-profile references.
A strong demo by this Toronto group has four delicious no-frills bangers in store for us located roughly on the intersection of garage punk and postcore, having some Hot Snakes energy to them and a similar vibe to the early works of Video and Teenanger in addition to straightforward punk acts such as Ascot Stabber, Flowers Of Evil, Piss Test as well as a more eccentric breed of garage-meets-hardcore acts á la Launcher and Mystic Inane. Music to my ears!
On this Oslo group's debut EP, an attitude and aesthetic inbetween the worlds of egg- and dungeon punk is given a distinctly far eastern theme. In the context of a genre cluster that makes a point of making no fucking sense, this makes about perfect fucking sense i'd say! Am i making any sense? Who cares, this shit is fun!
Billiam's first releases were around the 2020 mark yet it feels to me as if this dude has been around for a lot longer, a subliminal presence always hovering at the periphery of a wider 12XU-relevant bubble. His newest LP should launch him right into the spotlight though, this being his strongest and most consistent batch of new tunes so far in his hard-to-imitate (though plenty of folks are trying for sure…), vaguely egg-ish melange of sometimes rather bare-bones synth- garage- and post punk - catchy as fuck, simple and dumb yet every single move hits home!
Flat Worms have been among the most reliably awesome groups of the past decade or so - you roughly know what to expect, know it's gonna be good and will have just enough fresh ideas and flourishes to keep things interesting. Needless to say, their newest LP won't dissapoint either, their signature sound inbetween the worlds of garage punk, noise rock and post punk coming across as tight and energetic as ever and, just maybe, even a bit more varied and playful than on previous efforts. In SSRT the distinct grooves of Wire and Television combine into an ever-so-slightly kraut-infused exercise. Time Warp In Exile feels like a fusion of The Cowboy and Spray Paint - the same then kinda applies to the album closing title track, which additionally seems to borrow a thing or two from The Ruts' classic It Was Cold.
Sorry folks, there's no embeddable full album stream available but you can listen to the whole thing over at their Soundcloud.
Two noteworthy german-language post punk releases here. Kalte Hand hail from Augsburg though they sound a lot more like stuff from the current Berlin Scene, their dystopian post punk drenched in pitch-black sarcasm calling to mind groups like Pigeon, Glaas, early Diät and Pretty Hurts as well as other german language groups á la Die Wärme Hyäne, Maske, Die Verlierer, L'appel Du Vide… also a hint of Puff and Pisse. The latter two groups' tendencies then take center stage on the debut EP of Hamburg duo Dunkle Strassen - a straightforward post- and garage punk sound with a distinct noise rock edge thrown into the mix which might aswell some similarity to a bunch of international acts such as Arse, Ascot Stabber or Crisis Man.
At first glance i wasn't quite sure if this Nashville group's newest LP isn't gonna be just a bit too mellow for my taste but eventually, the sheer strength of their Lo-Fi indie rock songcraft wins me over once again, the whole thing having the feel of a scrappy odds-and-ends collection which might just be the case. This assessment is only being reinforced by the fact that the songs appear in alphabetical order here - the tunes themselves are pure A-grade stuff though.
The only ukranian eggpunk group that i know of so far had already piqued my interest with a batch of super solid extended plays in recent weeks and with their newest one, they're fucking killing it if you ask me. Mandatory new listening for fans of shit á la Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, Beer and Nuts!
A new Trading Wreckage release, which is always good for some vaguely no wave-informed joy, chaos and depravity. This one's a real stunner though! In this particular incarnation, The Bozo Big Shit Garbage Band appears to be a solo endeavor of Tony Shit also known as Reese McLean and whatever other monikers the guy has gone under, who has also been an integral part of the likes of Gay Cum Daddies, Eat Avery's Bones, Bukkake Moms, Flesh Narc and many others. While some cosmic background hum of no wave experimentation is still tangible here, a lack of human chaos and clutter during recording appears to have also translated into an equally less cluttered album. Although still every bit as creative and unpredictable as we came to expect from previous releases, this newest one does it all in a structured, catchy and propulsive manner previously unheard from this dude, at times reminiscent of groups on the intersection of garage-, post- and art punk like the UV Race, Soft Shoulder, Shark Toys and Parquet Courts, while in other moments, this shit might sounds like some AmRep and Touch&Go-esque 90s Noise Rock collides with mid-eighties The Fall.
