Class from Tucson, Arizona deliver their strongest release so far via the seemingly infallible Feel It Records. Their whereabouts certainly make The Resonars come to mind and indeed their mastermind Matt Rendon has been involved in the production and further similarities can be drawn in their somewhat british invasion-fueled brand of slightly psychedelic brand of garage rock, jangle- and power pop. Class, however, deal in a way more straightforward and rougher-edged garage punk sound – the overall vibe of Burning Cash wouldn’t feel out of place on the recent Strange Attractor LP.
More beautiful delightful garage punk mayhem by the dungeon-dwellers from Karlsruhe, Germany, this time in a slightly less lo-fi yet perfectly potent sound aesthetic. Once again you might be remembered of acts like Strange Attractor, Salamirecorder and, most of all, various incarnations of Thee Oh Sees over the years. My Spell, then again, sounds a bit as if the latter had been crossbred with the no-wave infused drones of noise rockers Spray Paint.
Oh look, one of my favorite pieces of punk rock vaporware finally got released! How long has it been… two years at the very least since this thing has first been teased in form of the (digital) Uncontrol single. Ultimately it was worth the wait though as the australian group’s first LP packs the same kind of savage garage punk assault we’ve witnessed on their previous EPs while expanding on it further, carrying an unexpectedly melancholic vibe throughout, best exemplified by the melodic pop smasher Strange Motel while Work and Military Boy remind me of Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters both in terms of vibe and energy levels. This is also required listening for fans of shit like Civic, S.U.G.A.R., Lysol, Split System, Mini Skirt, Institute and Living Eyes.
This Greenville, South Carolina group kicks up an excellent racket located somwhere inbetween the gears of garage punk, post punk and postcore bearing some similaritiy to more recent stuff á la Big Bopper, Mystic Inane, Dollhouse, Cutie, Wymyns Prysyn, Crisis Man… just as much as to classic pieces by the likes of Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Nation Of Ulysses, Rites of Spring or Gray Matter.
The noise on this debut EP by New York (?) group Factory City Children comes accross like a somewhat blackened variant of garage-/electro punk noisemakers á la S.B.F., Stalins Of Sounds, Kid Chrome and The Gobs with a smidge of Sick Thoughts thrown in for good measure. Having been previously released pretty much under everyone’s radar as a tape, Toxic State Records now has it either as a 7″ or a way overpriced digital download, well knowing we’ll pay the ten bucks anyway because we’re all addicted to the shit. Capitalism fuck yeah!
I didn’t really expect this to happen, close to a decade after their last recorded sign of life, yet here we are beholding the wonders of a new Strange Attractor LP. This is a smasher from start to finish in their trademark style loading up some of the most ancient possible ingredients of garage punk with a raw and primal, quirky and unkempt energy that is very much of their own, non-stop cranking out those infectious hooks with frightening ease and efficiency.
It took the Bristol group just shy of a year to come up with the newest installment in their, so far, absolutely spectacular and flawless run of (digital) singles. I’m glad to announce that i’ve got nothing new to say about this one – these two tunes are yet another masterclass of melodic post punk and power pop songcraft with clear echoes of Buzzcocks, Television Personalities, Mekons and many more artefacts of predominantly british DIY punk history.
A thoroughly high quality new batch of 7″s and even a CD from the ever reliable italian garage punk institution Goodbye Boozy Records. Tee Vee Repairman is yet another project of Ishka Edmeades who you might also know from acts such as Satanic Togas, Set-Top Box, Research Reactor Corp., Gee Tee, Remote Control, Mainframe… this dude seems to be in pretty much anything out of the Warttman orbit and beyond that. Let’s just say dude’s been’s a constant fixture on this blog in recent years and will sure crop up many more times because everything he touches tends to become instant garage punk and power pop gold. A different beast altogether is the 7″ by Wayne Pain & The Shit Stains, a simple & stupid attack of decidedly oldschool fuzzed-out garage punk with that classic rockabilly edge to it. Speaking of rockabilly… Qinqs have a touch of that going on too, although in their case it reeks less of The Cramps and more of The Fall – The Great White Wonder might as well be called How i re-wrote Elastic Man – as well as more recent occurrences á la Shark Toys, Ex Cult, Parquet Courts or The UV Race. The newest tape by the mysterious Zoids then is another endearingly eccentric treat of minimalist electro-/space-/garage punk transporting more than just a little bit of a Suicide-meets-Metal Urbain / Dr. Mix and the Remix vibe. Also: Yeah, fuck vinyl ‘cos the future belongs to the compact disc bro. Dadgad‘s tracks then serve as the perfect transition between the aforementioned electric space punk stylings and the opposite half of a 7″ featuring – yet again – that dude known as Zhoop… or was it Feed? Djinn? Brundle maybe? I don’t care really it’s all good shit!
An overflowing bucket of joy, the newest LP(ette) by some duo from Montreuil, France, generating a mixture melodic of garage punk, oldschool indie rock, fuzz- and jangle pop reminding me of a diverse group of more-or-less recent acts á la Dumb Punts, Woolen Men, Hermetic, Landlines, The Exbats, Tape/Off… or maybe a more down-to-earth P.S. I Love You, aswell as old indie rockers of the Superchunk, Archers Of Loaf variety. This record serves as a perfect reminder that you don’t need to stage a huge spectacle if you just deliver on the melodies that stick.
More great fodder by synth-/electro viking punk maestro Klint on this nice compilation available either digitally or dubbed onto pre-loved cassette stock, if you’re so inclined – i do certainly approve of that, giving old cassettes a new home! So what we got here is a mix of old shit you might have heard already, old shit you probably haven’t heard yet and new shit you definitely haven’t. Oh and then apparently there’s also the matter a of a couple of recently unearthed ancient wax cylinders, gloriously rough around the edges and unplayed since approximately 1904-1912. Neat!
