So the egg-plague has now arrived in Greece. Was about time, i’d say. Μπριτζολιτσεσ are a duo from Athens cooking up a mixture of garage- and synth punk that even yours truly has to classify as totally and deliciously nuts. A level of nuttyness that’s roughly in the ballpark of lunatics like Skull Cult or the whole Warttman-infested Research Reactor Corp./Set-Top Box clusterfuck. Whatever undecipherable mess google translate makes of the lyrics gives me a hunch that understanding the language won’t make the whole thing any saner.
So this group from Reno, Nev… aw, fuck off! My best guesses are either Leipzig or Berlin with 95% confidence. Probably not wearing cowboy hats either. The music rips though. Ultra-competent garage punk with that certain Useless Eaters, Sauna Youth or Flat Worms flavor and occasional hardcore flourishes.
No wonder this shit feels familiar. The Wind-Ups is a new solo project of none other than Jake Sprecher of Terry Malts and Smokescreens fame. Much rawer and louder than any of his other groups have dared to sound recently (albeit not quite reaching early Terry Malts levels of speed and fuzzyness), this at times sounds like a fusion of Terry Malts’ melodicity with slightly post punk-leaning garage groups like Tyvek or Parquet Courts, while in other moments you can sense a breeze of The Spits, Ricky Hell or anything Reatard(s)-related. Yet when he goes all-in on power pop, there are some undeniable british invasion vibes emanating from his arrangements and compositions.
Phew… this thing must’ve been mixed/mastered by a deaf person. I’m pretty much used to all kinds of sonic extremes by now but this must be the first time ever that i can’t bear listening to a thing without at least applying some heavy EQ. Maybe the actual cassette release is less painful to listen to though…
Otherwise this thing kicks butt with unerring precision. Don’t know how i managed to overlook this so far but somehow stupid me needed another reminder in the form of a (digital only?) reissue on Goodbye Boozy to finally notice its qualities. These texans play some pretty wild and unpredictable amalgamation of post- and garage punk, noise rock and postcore which you might, at different points, compare to groups like Patti, Cutie, Rolex, Mystic Inane or Brandy.
Another kickass EP by this Philadelphia group. This time they crank up the garage factor considerably while maintaining their taste for oldschool proto-noise rock and -sludge. Think of a curious mix between NY’s Cutie and aussie garage groups like Mini Skirt, Pist Idiots on a collision course with old-timey noisemakers of the U-Men, Scientists, X (Sydney, not L.A.) variety plus a slight touch of Mudhoney.
Whoosh! The second EP by Stockholm group Wails holds yet another perfectly solid batch of noise-infused high-octane straightforward garage punk tracks, a sound somewhere inbetween the sonic virtues of powerhouses such as The Cowboy, Sauna Youth, Ex-Cult and True Sons Of Thunder.
Speaking of the devil… here’s the latest venture of the mighty Warttman empire and it’s yet another beauty to behold. Four rough gems of catchy garage punk and power pop that, of all the Warttman-related groups, reminds me most of R.F.M.C. and Satanic Togas, albeit with a certain southern rock (in this particular case… southern what, actually??) bent bearing some similarity to what you heard on early Sheer Mag EPs.
Not only do Warttman-affiliated australians Research Reactor Corp. and Barcelona’s Prison Affair have a lot in common in terms of their Lo-Fi garage aesthetics, but also both of them had earlier EPs reissued by Erste Theke Tonträger at some point. Thus, it makes perfect sense for them to join forces on this kick-ass new split-EP on ETT that once again is guaranteed to satisfy connoisseurs of all the finer things inside the realm of weird-ass yet catchy-as-hell garage punk goodness.
Whoa, what an excellent debut EP by a Memphis, Tennessee group! The opener plays out kinda like Drive Like Jehu or Hot Snakes in creative overdrive mode, also being somewhat reminiscent of contemporary bands like Meat Wave, Mystic Inane, Tunic or Wymyns Prysyn. Next they change gear entirely and come up with a mid-tempo post punk tune in which a pulsing beat collides with some serious Flying Nun-style psychedelia and a certain Sauna Youth vibe. The latter also permeates the subsequent two garage punk smashers with echoes of Ex-Cult, early Teenanger or Dumb Punts, gradually shapeshifting into more of a post punk and indie rock style not unlike Gotobeds, Sleepies or B-Boys, which in the closing track once again morphs into kind of a Swervedriver-esque slow jam. There’s not a single weak spot to be found on this record!
In a week already pretty heavy on egg-related releases, all that’s left for me to say about this debut EP is that the good egghead gospel seems to have reached the righteous people of Chile at last and that fact alone fills my heart with so much joy – of course also helped by this being such a fun little record.
