A new Trading Wreckage release, which is always good for some vaguely no wave-informed joy, chaos and depravity. This one's a real stunner though! In this particular incarnation, The Bozo Big Shit Garbage Band appears to be a solo endeavor of Tony Shit also known as Reese McLean and whatever other monikers the guy has gone under, who has also been an integral part of the likes of Gay Cum Daddies, Eat Avery's Bones, Bukkake Moms, Flesh Narc and many others. While some cosmic background hum of no wave experimentation is still tangible here, a lack of human chaos and clutter during recording appears to have also translated into an equally less cluttered album. Although still every bit as creative and unpredictable as we came to expect from previous releases, this newest one does it all in a structured, catchy and propulsive manner previously unheard from this dude, at times reminiscent of groups on the intersection of garage-, post- and art punk like the UV Race, Soft Shoulder, Shark Toys and Parquet Courts, while in other moments, this shit might sounds like some AmRep and Touch&Go-esque 90s Noise Rock collides with mid-eighties The Fall.
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.
Five minutes of delightful noises and structured chaos crammed into dense little tunes by an israeli group. Equally punishing, quirky and eclectic shit right in the sweet spot overlapping post punk, noise rock and garage punk - a freewheeling anything-goes spirit reminding me of a bunch of groups such as Big Bopper, Brandy, Patti, Reality Group or Cutie.
Minimalist psychedelic hypnotism of a particularly repetitive and stubborn, timeless variety by frenchman Remy Pablo who, if i'm not mistaken, is also playing in groups such as The Anomalys and Weird Omen. You can hear clear echoes of ol late-'70s and '80s underground groups á la MX-80, Chrome, early Telescopes and Metal Urbain while further comparisons might just as well be made to more recent acts like Peace de Résistance, A Place To Bury Strangers, Jean Mignon and Writhing Squares.
This Cincinnati group's second EP sets off a strong new set of highly flammable charges made up of ingredients found somewhere in the grey areas of Noise Rock, Post-, Garage- and Synth Punk… a bit like an unstable mixture of Busted Head Racket, Brandy, R.Clown, ISS, Spyroids and Knowso boiled down to an almost '70s/'80s The Fall-esqe simplicity and repetition.
A beautifully overwhelming mud shower of noise-infested Postcore, the debut EP of this Minneapolis group clearly inheriting some of the DNA of the city's own Noise Rock-related history while feeling perfectly contemporary all the same, mainly reminding me of recent bands á la Dollhouse, Launcher, Mystic Inane, Wymyns Prysyn and Optic Nerve… with a touch of Hot Snakes thrown in for good measure.
I'd almost forgotten about this San Francisco group yet here they are following up their impressive 2019 debut album with a new EP showcasing their quirky and inventive sound on the fringes of noise rock, hard- and postcore in a shape both rougher and more refined at the same time, echoing some of the greatest noise-/weirdcore releases of recent years including those by the likes of Warm Bodies, Sniffany & The Nits, Vexx, Dots, Judy & The Jerks or Mystic Inane.
A simply delightful debut LP by this Philadelphia group, brought to us via local label SRA Records. I wanna describe this shit as a mixed bag in the best sense possible, an eccentric repository of slightly cowpunk-infused art punk hovering somewhere between garage- and noise-heavy hardcore shit with a certain KBD-extension somewhat reminiscent of early Electric Chair plus a touch of Soupcans on one hand, and then on the other, there are some ubiquitous echoes to be found of old acts on the intersection of '80s noise rock and proto-grunge like, say, U-Men, Scratch Acid, Volcano Suns, Butthole Surfers, Minutemen, Saccharine Trust, Feedtime and very early Meat Puppets, just to name a couple of the most obvious references.
For some reason i had my doubts about this record beforehand (dunno… might have been down to the somewhat slick production? Intelligible lyrics, urgh!) but now listening to the whole thing, i gotta say it turns out to be pretty fucking awesome shit once again, even incrementally improving on the already impressive quality standard of the Chicago group's previous releases in a flawless batch of smart and elaborate postcore tunes, which at certain points might draw comparisons to groups like Batpiss, Meat Wave, Bench Press, Bloody Gears, earlier stuff by the likes of Tunic, Pile and USA Nails, angular post punk acts like Lithics, Pill or Marbled Eye as well as occasional flashes of, say… Jawbox, Smart Went Crazy, Q and not U and mid-'90s Fugazi. What more could i ask for, really?
Repeatedly the Berlin group featuring members of, among others, Useless Eaters, Idiota Civlizzatto, Exit Group und Clock Of Time delivers the goods of elaborately constructed, slightly deathrock-infused post punk grooves, with Clock Of Time being the most obvious comparison among the groups mentioned as these folks do indeed play some variant of what i can't help but classify as quite traditional Berlin school of the past decade-plus, scratching a similar itch to bands like Pigeon, Liiek, Diät, Pretty Hurts… Not that i'd consider that to be a bad thing at all. Quite the contrary - after all, "Berlin sound" wouldn't be a thing really if it hadn't been built up over the years to embody such a consistent legacy of impeccable quality releases.
