Respected Los Angeles garage powerhouse Vinny Vaguess keeps things interesting. While his previous two longplayers turned out a bit mellower, leaning quite heavily into powerpop melodicity, his newest EP mixes things up again in somewhat unexpected ways by introducing quirky post punk elements, often making generous use of vaguely devo-esque synths. Speaking of the devil… with Lesser Of Two we even get a full-blown synth pop hymn, not dissimilar to some stuff Alien Nosejob did recently. Other points of reference might be Nick Normal, Andy Human and the Reptoids, Teenanger, occasional flashes of Ausmuteants. Everything works admirably here, in no small part thanks to the kind of excellent songcraft we’ve come to expect from this dude.
Some chicago dude’s latest EP delivers four and a half short & sweet bursts of extra blown-out krauty spacerockin’ psychedelic garage fuzz ecstasy. Destruction Unit-meet-Chrome, Draggs collide with Dr. Mix & The Remix. Turn on, tune in and… run to your stereo and hit play again ‘cos the whole thing is only nine minutes long.
New tunes by Sudbury, Canada’s Tommy and the Commies. You should know what to expect by now: A bright and colorful spectacle made up of top notch quality power pop, a bit of garage and a whole truckload of buzzcocks-style straight and melodic punk rock, elevated by a punchy performance as well as some unerring songwriting skill.
Already having a bunch of strong EPs under their belt, Mini Skirt of Byron Bay, Australia are now delivering their first LP. Of course they do have a few more bones to pick, finding expression in some of their most pissed off lyrics to date, while on the musical side of things, we get all the goodness familiar from their EPs and more… Garage Punk/Pub Rock somewhat similar to Dumb Punts, Pissed Idiots or WOD, that counterbalances its comparatively relaxed pace with a vigorous performance, this time even reluctantly expanding their stylistic palette with occasional flashes of oldschool late 80’s/early 90s indie rock.
Melbourne group Moth already had a decent demo out not too long ago, but this new set of tunes is so much stronger. This is your typical contemporary garage-/synth punk stuff, plain and simple… but also quite competently done, packing some serious punch and adding a slight psychedelic touch to the mix – otherwise roughly adhering to the Useless Eaters, Pow!, Flat Worms and Ex-Cult core formulas. You can’t go wrong with these.
On album number three Ventura, California garage punks Sweet Reaper seamlessly pick things up where they left off roughly two years ago with another strong batch of bittersweet, melodic bangers of some Wipers-esque flavor as well as varying degrees of similarity to more current acts, the likes of Cheap Whine, Radioactivity, Red Dons, Dadar.
Now that’s™ some potent shit coming out of poland, presumably. Equal parts hardcore- and garage punk, efficiently propelled forward by an ultra-simplistic drumming style giving the whole thing an almost cowpunk vibe, but also leaving plenty of room for the noise-laden sonic textures by the string torturing division to spread out – kinda like you might have heard in the past from Bands like Leche, Murderer, Yambag, Lux… maybe even a bit of Wymyns Prysyn hidden in there.
Another eight snappy punches of straightfoward garage punk on this Portland three-piece’s sophomore EP/mini-LP, worthy of carrying the Iron Lung seal of quality and reminding me at times of Sauna Youth, Ex-Cult, Teenanger… complemented by certain ’77 vibe á la Amyl and the Sniffers.
Two reliable german/austrian labels have another blast in store for the discerning garage afficinado, made by some Vienna folks who have figured it out quite nicely where to simultaneously touch their instruments at all the right times, in just the right way and intensity, in order to have them emit noises pleasing to my ears.
Here’s some quality no-frills ass-whoppin’, hip-shakin’ straight-ahead garage punk by a Melbourne group whose ruckus kinda sounds like the result of crossbreeding some Mini Skirt with early Teenanger or maybe Obits. Then you feed the resulting breed a diet consisting of a tolerably small amount of Oi!, some early 80s US Westcoast Punk, even a slight hint of Crass maybe. The grown up beast might resemble what Tony Dork are doing here and i think it’s quite a beauty to behold.
