Damn, this Chicago group's noise must've already sounded quite archaic at the time their first LP dropped in 2013 but now, more than decade since their last recorded output, their sound has passively made it full circle back into the pleasantly old-fashioned, timeless and classy bracket of anachronistic noise, their sound clearly taking cues from the likes of Lync, early Jawbreaker and Superchunk or, to a lesser extent, Dag Nasty, Rites Of Spring and maybe also some traces of early Unwound and Hoover? Anyway, these tunes are operating on a level quite a few notches above your average '90s punk throwback, chiefly owing to an abundance of rock-solid songcraft all throughout and an unwavering intuition for timeless heavy-duty, load-bearing hooks, while also leaving plenty of wiggle room for some neat diversions and moments not quite fitting the standard early '90s postcore / emo / indie rock templates like that bit of a Wipers- and Dead Moon-esque garage flavor added to tunes like Caustic Dreams. It's this skillful balance of what strikes me as a quite intimate, encyclopedic knowledge and love of that particular patch of 90s punk history coupled with a marked reluctance to comply with its tropes and conventions too slavishly, adding even more of a unique flavor to a record that's not ashamed to feel vagely nostalgic and retro at points without ever coming across like a tired retread, still able to subvert and exceed my expectations in crucial places, a record equally inspired and old-fashioned.
This Dublin-based group's output so far is a bit of a, how should i put it... messy affair to say the least though it was never boring either, that's for sure. This new 2-track digital single may now mark their most successful attempt at uncluttering their creative vision so far and i'm nothing short of impressed with the classy oldschool indie rock vibes goin' on here, whose folk-ish strummyness recalls the glory days of Volcano Suns or one of their sorta-spiritual successors, the still active Tha Martha's Vineyard Ferries. The A-side Secret Bench In The Bardo is such a strong and striking example of that kind of thing the other tune Abacus Rubicon has to play second fiddle kinda by sheer circumstance, though that doesn't mean it's anything less than another perfectly pleasing late-eighties to mid-nineties postcore throwback in its own right.
Just like that Celebrators LP i've just posted, the debut LP of Oamaru, New Zeeland group Cuticles is yet another really freakin' good 21-song LP that could have become a freakin' brillian 15-song LP just by cutting some fat but ya know... i'm not gonna complain about such an abundance of good, especially if that shit is so fucking up my alley. Featuring members of 2010s NZ DIY punk staples Moonrakers and Trendees, this group, which first really caught my attention with their excellent 2023 EP Pavlova, certainly shares some of that shambolic avantgarde DNA but channels it into a much more catchy and melodic whole, trading in much of that raw Half Japanese-style mayhem for a more approachable aesthetic, reminiscent among others of old british DIY acts in the neighborhood of Swell Maps, Television Personalities, Mekons and Desperate Bicycles. There's a good deal of old Flying Nun energy goin' on aswell plus some stray occurences of the more pop-focused end of the Pink Flag-era Wire spectrum in tunes like Making Up Shit. If i had to come up with more recent bands as comparisons, i'd say New York's Famous Logs in History, Philadelphia group Society and the early works of Adelaide's own Wireheads don't strike my as totally off either.
This NYC group has been around for a good while actually even though they only really caught my eye with their excellent 2024 Zinger LP, which channeled the common aesthetics of their looser, scrappier-feeling previous works into a more coherent and exciting package. Their newest EP continues on that same pleasantly anachronistic trajectory mixing fuzzy garage punk with lots of late-'80s to mid-'90s College-/Indie Rock- and (proto-)Grunge-informed shredding, even though the too-disjointed-for-its-own-good quality of the second tune Cutie - putting in way too little connective tissue to truly breathe life in this disfigured tiny creature - really threw me off for a moment. Anyway, everthing following that feels a lot more organic and sensible here and if that certain brand of oldschool slacker punk is your kind of jam, this is yet another worthy jolt of energy for ya!
This dude based in Cincinnati has five catchy and explosive garage punk, power- and noise pop nuggets for us on his debut EP bookended by two undeniable knockout tunes roughly in the vein of old Marked Men, Sonic Avenues, early Mind Spiders, Bad Sports or Steve Adamyk Band, while the middle part branches out a bit into more relaxed midtempo territory with some surf twang getting infused into a piece of '90s indie-/slacker rock in Dock, a bit of eighties Flying Nun pop running through Acid Angel and the Psychic TV cover tune God Star doesn't shit the bed either. All in all, a freakin' enjoyable little package and i could definitely use more of that shit.
Last Year's Epoxy River and Super Pool LP by this Evesham, New Jersey (presumably one-man-) group was already such a massive leap in quality for them and yet again, they manage to considerably refine their sound on this newest LP, on which they kinda leave behind the late-2000s fuzz punk and noise pop ingredients that dominated that record and lean even more into the oldschool '80s and '90s college- and indie rock-informed sounds ranging from classic Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, Bitch Magnet and early Seam to the likes of Superchunk and Polvo, with just a subtle hint of first and second wave emo thrown in for good measure but also increasing amounts of '80s hardcore-based proto-noise rockers like Flipper, Big Black, Drunks With Guns and No Trend, especially in the final stretch of the record. There's an unpredictable quality and an explosive, uncontainable energy to these tunes, radiating the pure untamed joy of blasting a euphoric and abrasive, larger-than-life and kinda anachronistic type of melodic noise out of your gear that feels pleasantly out-of-place in this era, all of it further thrown deliciously off-balance by the ear-piercing screams that prove this dude still ain't ready to half-ass anything here.
In a week marked by unexpected bandcamp drops, here's another one of those coming our way via the bandcamp page of Austin, Texas group Chronophage. As far as i can tell Providers appear to be a NYC-based group and the sonic parameters of their spanish language tunes are a curious mixture of quite pronounced Oi!-influences on one hand but have just as much of a mid-eighties punk and indie-/college rock quality that calls to mind groups as diverse as classic Hüsker Dü, late Naked Raygun, Dinosaur Jr., Angst and Replacements, their melodies and arrangements charged with a sense of melancholy that feels as typical of that era as it's also reminiscent of that brief moment in the early 2010s when a number of acts like Milk Music, Happy Diving and California X led to a short-lived resurgence of that particular sound, while at other moments you can find some echoes of the melodic fuzz punk and noise pop of that same era and groups like Male Bonding, Joanna Gruesome, No Age or Wavves.
Is this really the fourth Dead Finks LP already? Time sure flies by man! In contrast to that, the output of the Berlin-based duo consisting of Erin Violet and Joseph Thomas (formerly of New Zeeland post punkers Trust Punks) has been reassuringly constant and worthy at all times, surely carrying over some of that old Trust Punks DNA but matching it up with a great deal of folk-ish strumming and melancholia, woven into an epic and colorful mosaic of widescreen drama, a moody atmosphere of unresolved conflict that more than once reminds me of the kinda iconic, singular vision of Brisbane indie-/noise rockers Kitchen's Floor.
That Aidmoozic EP too short for you? This Ackland, New Zeeland group has yet another batch of heavily british DIY punk-flavored strummery for us following a somewhat more basic yet perfectly effective formula that just can't conceal the amount of Desperate Bicycles, Mekons and Television Personalities-worship at the core of it with maybe an occasional sprinkle of Buzzcocks for good measure or, if you wanna go like one or two levels deeper, Performing Ferrets, possibly? Anyway, concerning somewhat more recent acolytes, i'd say the UK's own Suburban Homes are probably the closest match here.
The third EP of this Montreal group is yet another irresistible candy seemingly inspired by the more melodic strains of eighties punk somewhere inbetween, say, Fastbacks, late-era Naked Raygun and Hüsker Dü, but also previous-decade revivalist indie punk rockers like Milk Music, California X, Milked and Kicking Spit ain't too far off either. This time they keep us waiting a bit - until the very last track to be precise - before they fully lean into their trademark heavy metal shredding which has also been the secret ingredient of their brilliant previous EP, but that shall in no way distract from the bucketloads of catchy joy we had along the way leading up to that point too!
