In recent years, i highly doubt there's ever been such a thing as a bad week for eggpunk but this one has been especially fruitful with three notable, way above average releases. Paulo Vicious of Tel Aviv you might already be familiar with from last winter's kickass debut EP and on this one, they seemlessly continue the depraved fun with strong echos of Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, Nubot555 and, at times, an added sheen of 8-bit chiptunes. Oslo, Norway act Dårskap then approach egg-related noises with a bit of a dungeon undertone and some ever-so-slight traces of oldschool death rock, begging the question if there's some overlap with another Oslo group, Molbo, who've also been featured on here just a week ago. To round things out with what is probably the most straightforward and classic (hah!) sounding example of the bunch, Stockholm, Sweden's very own Gurk deliver four new attacks of ultra-catchy egg-induced joy on their newest EP that might just be their strongest effort to date.
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 new EP by the San Antonio, Texas group and as always i'm happy to say that Sex Mex still sound very much like Sex Mex, their mixture of garage- and synth punk, noise- and power pop transporting the aesthetics of only the most catchy and melodic artifacts out of the whole Reatard era. Reliable shit that doesn't try anything funny and instead just delivers on the hooks!
The EP suffers from non-embeddable bandcamp disease, but you can listen to the whole thing over at their bandcamp page.
Spanish noise pop overlords Beta Maximo return with a strong new batch of tunes. Hard to believe their prolific output began just sometime last summer… Starting out with what i'd consider more of an eggpunk-aesthetic, they've constantly kept changing things up, gradually evolving into a somewhat slower, dreamy and slightly shoegaze-y direction and these new songs strike me as the most realized and well-rounded stuff we've heard from them recently.
Whatever there is to be found out about this Cincinnati, Ohio group is cloaked in a veil of uncertainty, not helped in the least by that kinda stereotypical "loser band" history given on this cassette's bandcamp page. So, probably, there are folks known from groups like The Serfs, The Drin, Crime of Passing and Motorbike at work here and at least some of the songs on this can be traced back to the year 2019, when they first appeared on the Pedestrian Sentiments EP. Otherwise i'm really not too sure if any of the details given are to be believed. You can't argue with the music though, which kicks ass from start to finish, in some way evoking the aesthetics, varying fidelity and stylistic variety of golden era Guided By Voices, otherwise roughly oscillating between jangly power pop in the vein of, say, Bed Wettin' Bad Boys or Bad Sports in tracks like Coward Of The State, Wannabe (A Star) and Silver Queen; grimy psychedelic garage rock (Didn't Win The Lottery, Obnoxious And A Neu) as well as a couple of catchy melodic garage punk smashers carrying the signature of groups á la Booji Boys, Tyvek and Parquet Courts. It's Been A Bad Week kinda resembles the garage-drenched noise aesthetics of A Place To Bury Strangers, Peyton's Kids has sort of a Woolen Men feel to it and throughout, the folk-infused post punk of earlier Chronophage comes to mind more than once.
The second LP of this Chico, California based group led by Jake Sprecher (of Smokescreens, Beehive and Terry Malts fame) picks the strands right up where they were left off on their amazing 2021 debut album Try Not To Think, which is to say: More of their irresistibly catchy blend of noise- and power pop, garage- and fuzz punk making for yet another high-octane bubblegum pop spectacle whose impeccable songwriting prowess never flounders even for a second!
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.
Following up on their incredible 2021 demo, this Copenhagen group delivers an equally exciting debut full length. On one hand, this sounds vaguely familiar as the local legends Lower and (early) Iceage have sure left their mark on Pleaser's music - having a similar appeal of larger-than-life drama tangled up in chaotic and emotional no-holds-barred performances - in addition to lesser known Copenhagen groups like Melting Walkmen, Echo People and Spines. But then again, Pleaser totally hold their own owing to top-notch song substance and plenty of neat little surprises like some black metal flourishes in the instrumental The World Says Its Name, Morricone stylings and a Murderer-esque psychedelic cowpunk haze in Drive of Distress while Light and Fire and This Is How I Die have some distinct Poison Ruïn vibes to them. Last but not least, in The Dream, a good bit of Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty collides with some 90s Leatherface or Samiam vibes as well as somewhat younger noise pop acts á la Star Party, Times Beach, No Age, Male Bonding or Joanna Gruesome.
This Sydney group has never disappointed and neither do they on their newest top-secret EP, so secret in fact, that even the song titles shall remain a mystery for the time being. What i can tell you though is that this thing once again fucking slams - another perfect run of lo-fi power pop, garage-, fuzz- and eggpunk. Just don't tell anyone, okay?
Australian label Painscale Records delivers its strongest entry so far in a series of split cassettes. Main attraction here is clearly the longer side comprising the debut batch of Melbourne group Noise Violations, who set ablaze an irresistible barrage of catchy hooks in a slightly egg-adjacent brand of garage punk with echoes of well-renowned genre powerhouses such as Satanic Togas, R.M.F.C., Ghoulies, Booji Boys, Metal Guru, Erik Nervous or Gee Tee, to name just a few. The other side then contains the previously released 2022 EP by Granada, Spain group Sprgrs, which is well worth another listen for fans of danceable Lo-Fi punk stuff in the vein of, say, Prison Affair, Beer, Nuts, Pringue, Dee Bee Rich and Beta Maximo.
