Raleigh, North Carolina hard-/postcore powerhouse Sorry State Records has two new treats in store for us. First there's the demo cassette by Atlanta group Chaos OK. Their name suggesting some connection to oldschool british punk already, i'd indeed say the EP starts out with a somewhat UK82-ish vibe in particular, which then later morphs into a shape vaguely similar to more recent, slightly garage-infused hardcore acts á la early Electric Chair and Kaleidoscope, only to end things in the guise of timeless proto noise, postcore and -punk somewhere inbetween the worlds of, say, Crass, Flipper and Drive Like Jehu. Exciting shit!
Another oldschool-ish, although a lot more simple and primitive force of nature is the newest 7" by Finland's Valtatyhjiö who convince by sheer force on this one, having both some traits of '80s continental european hardcore to them as well as - to come full circle as far as british influence is concerned - some flourishes of clearly NWOBHM-inspired (speed-)metal.
What i said about Uranium Club's effect on garage punk a couple weeks back, similar things i can attest to this Oakland group concerning their particular (sub-)genre. Here we have a new LP by another band who, despite far from being the most prolific of acts out there, has clearly sent plenty of ripples through the post- and art punk scene of recent years. It's been over five years since their last record and surely things have kept moving since then, as evidenced by a matured sound on display here that once again presents them on the cutting edge of their own niche, considerably advancing and developing their sound and craft while still retaining all the traits that made them so special in the first place. What's already been forshadowed with their 2022 digital single Dirty Water comes into full bloom here - their songs and arrangements, while still being every bit as eleborate and angular constructions, have gained a lot in terms of elegance and melodic sensibility, their compositions always being grounded in careful and intricate songwriting craftsmanship. Songs like the brilliant first single See It Too kinda channel the most melodic and catchy aspects of '70s Wire while enriching those smartypants aesthetics with tons of human warmth and sincere emotion.
Now here's some brilliant shit i've been totally unprepared for, certainly having a mind of its own and being delightfully out of touch with the zeitgeist! Sure, the whole thing feels kinda old. I'm kinda old too, so i like that. Imagine the likes of Saccharine Trust, Minutemen, Swell Maps and The Pop Group partaking in an occult ritual to conjure up an ancient '60s acid rock demon, an unholy crossbreed of psych- and math rock. This is quite terribly self-indulgent of course, but that aspect kinda comes with both of those genres, i guess. At this point i'm pretty sure you've already made up your mind about it and know if you're gonna love or hate it. In my humble opinion, what the Philadelphia group hallucinates up here is pretty fucking swell and totally should be legalized!
After a somewhat mixed bag of a cassette four years ago and a string of collaboration EPs with the likes of Eyes And Flies, Science Man and Ricky Hell, the newest album and accompanying extended play cassette of Buffalo, NY group Nervous Tick and the Zipper Lips sees them returning at their most focused to date, their mix of post-, garage- and synth punk with just a slight hint of industrial coming across like a decent middle ground between, say, Droids Blood, Beef and The Spits - far from reinventing the wheel here but always energetic, catchy and effective.
It took the Sydney group like a half decade to come up with their third EP but here it finally is in all its glory and spectacle. Their very own fusion of noise rock, hard- and postcore has retained every bit of their frantic energy while mixing shit up just enough to keep things interesting, for example in Shame Bomb, in which they conjure up a previously unheard sense of melancholy. Other times, their speeds and levels of devastation are reaching the explosive force of their debut EP in songs such as Level Skipper and Prick in the Franger, after the slightly more forgiving previous Safe Word EP, while tracks like Night Shift Blues once again supercharge all the grime and dirt of oldschool Amphetamine Repile-style riffing with a relentless hardcore attack.
The second EP by this San Francisco group, coming to us by way of the weirdo suits at the headquarters of Discontinuous Innovation Inc., marks a quite impressive step up in energy, sophistication, elegance and stylistic variety after their already perfectly enjoyable debut cassingle in 2020. In the year 2024, their quirky and chaotic mix of postcore, post- and art punk with just a smidge of garage punk thrown in for good measure is still gonna evoke universally favorable comparisons to quirky noisemakers in the vein of Rolex, Patti, Reality Group, Big Bopper, Warm Bodies, Uranium Club and Brandy.
Jake Robertson's Alien Nosejob usually finds some way to subvert our expectations and their newest 7", coming to us as usual via Anti Fade Records, ain't no exception in that regard! The Executioner surprises with what might easily be the most post punk the group has ever sounded as cold and raw electric beats get welded to an equally rigid construct of repetitive guitar riffs, combining into a slightly industrial-ish overall vibe. West Side Story then is closer to the familiar and beloved standard Alien Nosejob formula, a straightforward yet elegant garage punk smasher based on a single exquisite riff that could just go on forever but conveniently gets faded out in time before it can cause any lasting (hearing-) damage.
Following up on their much rougher, hardcore-leaning International Heartthrob EP of last year, Indiana's Spewed Brain take their sound into a catchier, slightly egg-ish direction on their new LP while staying delightfully fucked-up and unpredictable, at different times reminding me of groups as diverse as, say, Trauma Harness, Print Head, Exwhite, The Gobs, Snooper, Rolex, Witch Piss or Slimex.
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.
Another mysterious eggpunk bomb has dropped from… well, where in the world actually? Released on a Tel Aviv label, the song titles, as google translate tells me, are apparently portuguese. Then again, sound-wise, the closest reference would probably be the blown-out mayhem of Barcelona genre overlords Prison Affair with further comparisons to be made to Cologne's Nuts, the early works of australian groups á la Set-Top Box, Eugh, Midgee, Research Reactor Corp and, to come full circle eventually, Tel Aviv's own crude eggpunk sensation Victor would fit nicely in there too. So, long story short, this is some premium grade globetrotting shit, regardless of where these folks might actually be located.
Yet another good reference point, then again, would be Charleston, South Carolina's Beer and, speaking of the devil, the world's most beerest beer band has just released their second extended play to which most of what i've just said is gonna apply verbatim so i'm not gonna repeat myself and instead just gonna crank up the good shit and advise you to do the same 'cos i know your neighbors are just gonna love it!
