A ridiculously impressive debut LP from this Tokyo-based group that unleashes a perfect storm of melodic but equally prouplsive noise pop and garage punk with an unpredictable, freewheeling creative energy at its core with no two songs sounding quite alike but everything feels as if made of one piece nonetheless, cycling through nine iterations of catchy noise that kinda alternates between the more straightforward sonic spaces of, say, Dark Thoughts, Sonic Avenues, Bad Sports or early Terry Malts on one hand and the way more incalculable and freakish bursts of melodic ruckus most recently heard from Eye Ball and The Dumpies on the other side of that equation.
Just a couple weeks after their debut, the second EP of the Beta Máximo dude's new synth punk project simply picks up the strands right where they left them on the predecessor, yet there's also some neat experimentation and surprise to be found in there which we haven't heard before like the airy synth polyrhythms in the verses of El Fin De Los Días showing SYT at their most aloof so far but also rewarding the patience by segueing into some of their most catchy moments in the chorus.
Right away the debut EP of this group based in Eugene, Oregon radiates a vibe reminding me of a number of short-lived noisy and melodic punk groups from the early 2010s like Milk Music, Fins and Dharma Dogs as well as the fairly recent bands Jolana Star and Psychic Dogs who seem determined to revive that timeless sound of borderline post punk-ish catchy punk tunes paying tribute to the eighties Homestead, SST Records and Touch & Go eras. So now you can add Liquid Cross to that list but also, there's a notable hint of early-days Protomartyr present here, most notably their second and third LPs, in no small part due to the singer's voice channeling a weary and melancholic quality quite similar to Protomartyr's Joe Casey.
More exciting eggpunk of the minimalist and fuzz-heavy variety comes to us from this UK-based group whose tunes don't do much to break the established patterns at first glance, but who fucking cares really when every single one hits the nail on the head so effortless and precise in an all-killer succession of snappy and catchy-as-fuck fuzz pop attacks that call to mind a mixture of, say, Elvis 2, Kid Chrome, Power Pants, S.B.F. and Satanic Togas.
Incredible debut EP by a London group fronted by Chubby (of Chubby and the Gang fame of course), whose vocals are probably the thing most reminiscent of his old band here, as the rustic Oi!-aesthetics - while still subtly present here like a faint background hum - give way to a somewhat more polished and vibrant but in no way less vigorous sound that feels like an ultra-compact encapsulation of various greatness in the melodic punk, power- and noise pop world both past and present, spanning from classic Hüsker Dü-ish vibes, over the instant catchyness of noise poppers Terry Malts and the most recent Dumpies and Eye Ball releases, to the strong melancholic touches of peak-era Leatherface or (Royal Headache-) Shogun's recent groups Antenna and Finnogun's Wake. Potent shit, can't wait for more of that!
There's some thoroughly fun and uplifting energy to this debut EP of spanish group Sonic Youth Of Today and if you've been paying any attention in recent years, it's immediately obvious that it's the Beta Máximo dude at work here, transforming the same melodicism and noise pop-ish vibes into a similarly quirky synth punk context that, in addition to his own work so far, also calls to mind bits and pieces of stuff á la O-D-EX, Digital Leather, Mind Spiders, Spyroids, Freak Genes or that recent Emmet O'Connor LP.
Beats me what being particularly "motorcycle" is supposed to entail (having two wheels and a motor and drinking gasoline i think...) but i can say with more confidence that i like Heather The Jerk tunes a lot better when they're very motorcycle than when they're not so much, as this this new EP has been the missing data point for me to determine as much from its fuzzy little bubblegum-infused garage punk- and noise pop gems that come across like a mixture between the only great pop punk group in the world - i'm speaking of Fastbacks, of course - and the eighties noise-/fuzz pop masterpieces of early The Primitives singles, helped along in no small part by an impeccable bundle of new tunes propelled forward by what's no doubt the most eager performance we're heard of them so far.
It's been a weak of smaller-fry (albeit excellent) releases and i'm behind on my blogging queue anyway so i'm gonna take the easy route of collating it all into a single blog post this time, okay?
First off, there's some delicious new hardcore shit from Hattiesburg group Silo Kids, further bolstering the stellar reputation of that unassuming mid-sized Mississippi town for being on the forefront of inventive and quirky hardcore punk that just refuses to play by the established rules and conventions.
With Power Pants of Winchester, Virginia on the other hand, we kinda know what we can expect from a new release, of which there are quite a few already and the next one is never too far off anyway (their recent CS5 Cassingle having been mere weeks ago aswell). Their newest PP11 EP feels like a considerable level-up from anything they've done before though in a discography that just may have started to feel a bit redundant at some points. Not that anything fundamental about their catchy melodic garage punk sound had changed, but these are cleary some of the most rippin' and well-crafted tunes we've heard of them so far.
Scrawlers from Tacoma, Washington then appear to scratch a quite similar - though also way more fuzzed-out and rough - itch of simple and effective garage punk delicacies that'll sure have friends of S.B.F., Kid Chrome, Gobs or Robbie Thunder approvingly nodding along to.
Dallas, Texas group Thyroids have been going for many years now but really hit their stride in the current decade with their sound growing ever more unpredictable, evading clear catigorizarion and this holds truer than ever on their newest two-track single, on which elements of garage- and synth punk, noise rock/-pop and eggpunk bounce off each other to exhilarating effects.
Last but not least, there's yet another Snarewaves EP delivering more of their patented electro punk formula that's every bit as strikingly simple as it is out-there and pretty much unique right now and although you'd think that kind of thing would run into the law of diminishing returns at some point, so far every new release just has left me craving more of that good shit.
Previous releases of this group from Pisa, Italy have all been obscured by a thick veil of of Lo-Fi grime and muck, yet the rough sonics couldn't do anything to fully conceal the raw brilliance hiding beneath all the clutter. For their newest EP, they polished up their production values just enough for the first time to bring their eccentric, pocket-sized post punk epics out of the murky shadows and confirm our suspicion they don't have to fear the revealing exposure to broad daylight. Starting off with a vibe not dissimilar to early 2010s surf-infused noise pop and fuzz punk groups like Male Bonding, early Wavves, No Age, Times Beach, Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! or, way more recently, Shooting Losers, it doesn't take long though before their tunes also develop a distinct last-decade post punk feel á la Die! Die! Die! and Piles, but also rougher, weirder punk phenomena like Dumb Vision, Piss Wizard and Pink Guitars wouldn't be too far fetched as a reference. On top of that, there's an unmistakable hint of mid-90s-to-early-2000s postcore at play here, the kind some uncultured philistines may be inclined to dub screamo but let it be known once and for all that this distinction shall be considered an insult to any good band, so no, this ain't screamo and fuck you for even bringing up that cursed idea.
The second LP of Minnesota's Yuasa-Exide starts off with a thrusting burst of fuzzed-out catchy mid-tempo punk channeling a mix of mid-fi era Guided By Voices, the more power pop-ish ends of the Bevis Frond universe and a slight hint of Eric's Trip or classic-era Dinosaur Jr. to boot in the opening track The Picture You Painted, just to increasingly and deliberately destabilize the sonic landscape on subsequent tracks. Their tunes and arrangements based somewhere inbetween the realms of '80s to '90s indie- and college rock, Flying Nun Records-style psychedelia and busy C86-ish strummery gain a more shambolic, hazy and surreal quality, always in acute danger of falling apart at the seams. Yet, quite wondrously, the looming sword of damocles never seems to strike, the tunes somehow always maintain their fragile equilibrium. The ability to pull that shit off already kinda struck me as their superpower on the previous Hyper At The Gates Of Dawn LP released earlier this year and i think it holds even more true here, a rare quality i previously found in early works by the likes of Rat Columns and The Molds over a decade ago and, maybe, the comparatively straightforward Psych Pop nuggets of Blank Realm's 2014 Grassed In LP which, then again, brings us back full circle on the aforementioned Flying Nun vibes.
