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.
This Oshkosh, Wisconsin group is cooking up a variety of inventive and adaptive anochronisms roughly in the realms post punk and postcore, garage punk and classic '90s indie rock, coming off as refreshingly out-of-place and -touch in today's landscape. Some '90s Dischord-meets-Touch and Go feel is going on in tracks such as Phthalate Mates and the groovy psychedelic closing epos Clumsy Ascetic. A hint of Protomartyr in Locks Fasten, psychedelic flourishes in The Delivery and hints of Swervedriver in songs like Radio Static. Further, at different points, you might be reminded of recent post punk/-core acts like Batpiss, Stuck and Bench Press, groups on the intersection of garage- and post punk like Tyvek, Parquet Courts or Flat Worms in addition to groups on the more melodic and jangly edges of post- and art punk á la Gotobeds, Sleepies, Tape/Off and Shark Toys.
What a goddamn beauty! Paul Caporino of cult garage punk / power pop veteran project M.O.T.O. at long last has compiled a new set of beautifully fuzzy recordings in the well-worn 4-track solo fashion, kicking things off with a fuckin' Motörhead cover of all things and subsequently pulling off what must be his most high-value, hook-laden set of tunes in a long time, nothing short of a new lo-fi pop masterpiece if you ask me. Many songs have already appeard on one occasion or another but honestly, who cares really as this thing kinda plays out like an all-killer-no-filler best of from his recent decade-plus of creative output, presented in uniqe, unheard recordings.
Brilliant new shit from folks who've previously been playing, among others, in Melbourne's infamously abrasive post punk act Sewers as well as the somewhat more accessible, indie rock-leaning outfit Love Of Diagrams. What we get here is once again pretty much off the beaten path, a heavily folk-infused melange in which the americana-drenched punk of, say, Angst collides with some 80s Scientists, a hint of british psychedelia and plenty of paisley underground jangleness - a deep melancholia, at times a little reminiscent of Brisbane's Kitchen's Floor finding its outlet in nonetheless catchy-as-fuck melodies, embedded into a kinda fuzzy, nebulous soundscape. Other times, the melodic post punk of The Estranged comes to mind or the relaxed psychedelic garage- and power pop of White Fence, The Cairo Gang. Other plausible references include more or less recent groups á la Damak, earlier Chronophage, Dead Finks, Refedex and The Molds.
This San Antonio, Texas group delights with a throwback to the most melodic parts of eighties punk, indie- and college rock, clearly informed by the likes of Hüsker Dü, Replacements, Moving Targets, Guided By Voices and Dinosaur Jr. in the more jangly melodic moments, as well as some early Naked Raygun in the straight-ahead rockin' tunes, all of it held together by frictionless songwriting that wouldn't feel too out of place with more recent bands á la Booji Boys, Bad Sports, TV Crime or Bed Wettin' Bad Boys either.
Absolutely fucking brilliant shit once again arriving at our shores courtesy of Total Punk Records! Glittering Insects feature members of GG King, Predator, Wymyns Prysyn and Uniform (the atlanta group, not the NY industrial punk/-metal duo) and of these, it bears the most similarity to the latter two groups with the melancholy arrangements strongly echoing that distinct Uniform vibe. Overall the combination of gritty abrasive textures, the aforementioned sense of melancholy, a songcraft that comes across as sad and unwieldy yet melodic and catchy at the same time, reminds me a lot of australian noise-/indie rock gods Kitchen's Floor, the scuzzy post punk of City Yelps or, in its most catchy moments, the noise pop of early Treehouse. An exceptionally immersive and epic experience best taken in as a whole - a rare thing these days.
A sonic experience wonderfully out of touch with the zeitgeist, crafted by some Bellingham, Washington group. Prime influence here seems to be a whole battery of early-to-mid eighties, loosely SST and Touch & Go-connected stuff - on the more strummy, folk-infused side of things admittedly, but never afraid of spontaneously morphing into short bursts of hardcore punk either. Most obvious amoung those influences would probably be shit among the lines of Angst and Meat Puppets, early Dinosaur Jr. and, secondarily, U-Men, Mudhoney and 80s Scientists, some very slight hints of Dicks and Wipers. Or alternately, you might think of more recent Acts like early Milk Music, Dharma Dogs, Chronophage and Damak.
A new LP by that finnish group with way to many guitar players… dunno, i think 666 was the number last time i counted. Here, the band is shifting their sound increasingly into a psych rock direction. Especially in TJ they're diving headfirst into Space Rock territory and the effort pays of admirably. In other places, they stay true to their brand of melodic indie rock, fuzz punk and noise pop with echoes of No Age, Wavves, California X, Happy Diving and some early The Men, which they then infuse with sprawling guitar drones reminiscent of Glenn Branca and 80s Sonic Youth.
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.
Wow, i didn't really expect this to happen. A good seven years after the group's sorta classic LP The Battle Of Brisbane we finally get another album by what at this point appears to exist as more of a solo venture by vocalist Matt Kennedy. His singular sound and vision in the realm of post punk, noise rock and that unlikely folk-y undercurrent comes accross as sharp and uncompromising as ever though, appearing beautifully out of step with the zeitgeist.
