I’ve already failed to mention this group at least two times and feel kinda bad about that – although you might have heard them already on some of my “Verspannungskassette” mixtapes. So, if you haven’t been acquainted with this Ottawa group’s chemically unstable garage-/hardcore-/KBD-style punk extravaganza yet, here’s your next chance. This tape, brought to us by malasyan punk stronghold Pissed Off! Recs, contains pretty much every note of their demo tape and 7″ released last year in, as it appears to me, mostly re-recorded and extra explosive renditions.
Thorougly enjoyable shit, this split LP on Big Neck Records. Blood Bags from Auckland, New Zeeland sure know how to trigger a deliciously blown out garage-/fuzz-/stoner punk riot evoking comparisons to The Cowboy and early The Men, completing the fun with some raw stooges power, strong Funhouse-esque propulsion. Salt Lake City’s Brain Bagz then produce a Sound that feels closely related in spirit and in its primal energy, but casts a much wider net in its choice of influences – starting off with a kinda Cramps-meet-Scratch Acid vibe and subsequently taking many cues from the 80s proto noise rock complex including the likes of No Trend, Flipper, Live Skull.
After having churned out an excellent Demo and a no less amazing EP in ’16/’17, it took a while for Melbourne’s Reality Group to come up with their first full length, which makes up for the long wait with a noticeably matured – although, thankfully, in no way or form sanitized – set of tunes. This album is everything you might have have hoped for from this band; a deliciously quirky frankenstein brew made up of garage-, art- and post punk you simply shoudn’t miss out on if you have any affinity for shit in the vein of Pinch Points, Uranium Club, Andy Human & The Reptoids, Erik Nervous, Lithics or even earlier Teenanger.
As you probably already know, i’m a total sucker for pretty much any weird chunk of noise Minneapolis dude awesome Connie Voltaire releases into the wild, so while we’re still waiting for new stuff of his best-known project Neo Neos (or maybe its actual flesh-and-bones full-band incarnation Neotypes), another batch of raw and blown-out farts released under his hardcore punk alter ego Cells does an admirable job at satisfying my addiction in the meantime.
After last year’s debut LP with his Beta Blockers pretty much blew everyone’s socks and pants off, there’s some new stuff out by one of contemporary garage punk’s most blazing figures. First, there’s been a tape earlier this year under the Psykik Vylence moniker, which sees him messing around with a properly raw assortment of hardcore punk sounds – the results of which are just plain gorgeous. And then, there’s a new digital EP with him going it solo again, just as was the case with Psykik Vylence. But with or without Beta Blockers – he’s doing what he’s best known and loved for: Quirky and inventive Garage Punk with built-in earworm guarantee, this time also including a pretty obscure choice for a cover version (no, i indeed never heard of Taste Test before…) and an unfinished – though totally smashing – instrumental closing track with the promise of actual vocals for it in the near future. Gotta adore the shit out of this!
IMHO, at this hour Cement Shoes of Richmond, Virginia are the current kings of the garagecore micro genre, coupling a massive amount of borderline-sleazy rock’n’roll with an undeniably hardcore kind of energy you will find in relatively few other groups – Cülo or their quasi-successors Tarantüla, Man Eaters come to mind as a somewhat more hardcore-leaning comparison… just maybe. Or kinda like australian sleaze-garage rockers Golden Pelicans having a hardcore epiphany. On their newest 7″ via the ever reliable british quality outlet Drunken Sailor Records we get more of just that, while the closing track Going Off The Grid , a rather straightforward, classic garage tune, might or might not indicate a future move away from hardcore speeds. But whatever they’re gonna do next, they’re an exciting act to keep both eyes on.
Already a handful of releases into their discography, we kinda know what to expect from a new Flat Worms record by now. However, that doesn’t mean they’re standing still exactly. Rather, with every new release they managed to focus on and expand upon a certain facet of their garage-, psychedelic- and fuzz punk sound, keeping things fresh and interesting at all times. This time, recording with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, the result does not only show Albini’s trademark sonic characteristics, but also their overall sound seems to embrace some of his legacy as a producer audio engineer, veering into a distinctly noise rock/postcore direction that, once again, was always subtly present on their previous records but never as much on display as here and might be compared to contemporary bands like Meat Wave, Metz or USA Nails. Other small but pleasant surprises come in the form of the title track – a garage jam you could almost describe as relaxed – as well as the 90s indie rock vibes in Market Forces.
While we’re at it, speaking of Kitchen People and Warttman Inc., here’s another blast of synth punk insanity by some Kitchen People-affiliated solo project, bearing obvious similarities to Warttman acts like Set-Top Box and Research Reactor Corp., with maybe a bit of Digital Leather or Trashdog sprinkled in from time to time.
The mighty Warttman gang’s newest recruits are Kitchen People who have already done a few releases before, although – let’s be honest here – none of those has been quite as ripping as their newest EP of appropriately weird, quirky muteant garage-/synth punk. These dudes should fit in comfortably with the rest of Warttman’s fucked up bunch.
Cleveland, Ohio’s Knowso already had 7″s out on both Total Punk and Neck Chop Records in the past, which kind of amounts to the ultimate seal of quality in today’s garage landscape. Their newest EP contiues all the goodness and carefully branches out from there. At times they remind of a mix between Nag, more recent Useless Eaters and Constant Mongrel. Other times i can draw parallels to the weirdo post punk of Patti or the unruly noise-/garage hybrids of Brandy and Hash Redactor – boiled down to their bare skeleton. Also, Turning Point has some Wire thing going on and you know that kind of shit will always be appreciated here.
