Cincinnati group Vacation remain a rare zeitgeist-defying gem, once again delivering a brilliant new batch of bangers equally catchy and propulsive, to be located in the rough ballpark of Power Pop, Garage Punk, Noise Pop and oldschool melodic Indie Rock, brimming with a pervasive sense of joy and euphoria in the face of rough times ahead while never missing the mark thanks to their remarkable skill in crafting simple but effective, perfectly balanced and to-the-point little tunes they then like to blow up to larger-than-life cinemascope proportions.
This neat cassette out on Weather Vane Records by a group sharing members with Vintage Crop among others, immediately captivates with an absolutely timeless make of elegant and well-rounded power pop, supported by way above-average songwriting chops. Think of a couple of more or less contemporary groups like Bed Wettin' Bad Boys, Tommy and the Commies, Bad Sports, The Wind-Ups, Datenight, Ex-Gold, Vacation, Mr. Teenage, Yups, Frozen Teens... pick your poison! Though the whole thing may be a bit too front-loaded with most of the hits residing on side a, which leads to a bit of a slump in the second half... kinda like like a meandering Twin Peaks season 2 it still manages to work itself back up to a glorious finale in the closing track Hold Music.
This New York group is kind of a curious, zeitgeist-defying beast in this day and age, wearing their fondness of late eighties to early nineties punk, grunge and indie rock on their sleeves with the opening track even being titled Nirvana, although i'd rather liken them to early Mudhoney and the noisy, early incarnation of The Pixies, maybe a hint of U-Men, Scratch Acid and Drive Like Jehu aswell. So basically, they're the kind of group that would've gotten various Pitchfork writers wet a decade-and-a-half ago, when the height of the first '90s nostalgia wave hit. These days though, they're kind of an obscure oddity and that makes this record all the more endearing to me.
Awesome to hear this dude's angel voice again! Just a couple weeks ago, Shogun, best known as the powerhouse front man of Royal Headache, made his triumphant return (let's not forget the neat 2018 Shogun and the Sheets 7" though) with the debut EP of Finnoguns Wake, the duo comprising of him and Finn Berzin and now, pretty much out of nowhere, there's also the debut EP by another band of his, Antenna, popping up which, of his projects so far, aligns closest to the oldschool Royal Headache vibe in terms of its song material while moving on from the rough garage sound towards a somewhat slicker aesthetic inbetween the parameters of straight-up melodic punk rock, noise- and power pop with a kinda unexpected Leatherface edge to it. Sweet!
A mainstay of recent years in garage punk is back with a somewhat more high-profile LP via Erste Theke Tonträger following a recent string of more understated cassette and digital releases. This thing is as eclectic as any of these but at the same time, a lot more focused, determined and consistent than some of those more scrappy recent offerings. Spanning a spectrum from the propulsive post punk of the opening salvo (When It's Gone, A.P.A.C.), melancholy indie rock ballads (Texas Cloud), compfy synth pop tunes (Let U Know) to straightforward garage-/fuzz punk explosions (Can't Take It, 2 Car Garage), there's plenty of meat to dig your teeth into, all held together by Vinny Earley's always confident, often plainly brilliant songwriting powers. Last but not least, Weekend Shadows and Carryon are further examples of exactly that kind of supreme power-/fuzz pop hymn the dude has always excelled at.
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.
