Exciting shit in the realm of noise rock, postcore and garage punk on this Tokyo group's newest EP showcasing quite a bit of stylistic variety. Proto-Being crashes right out of the gate like a mix of Multicult, Tar and Drive like Jehu. Slug then exhibits a more catchy, melodic sensibility akin to, say, Bitch Magnet, Polvo or Chavez. Evidence has some acid-drenched proto punk vibe to it like MX-80 colliding with early The Men plus a hint of Wipers and last but not least, Disconnect radiates some distinct Hot Snakes-meeet-Nation Of Ulysses kind of energy.
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 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.
A brilliant new release brought to us by Gimmie Records, the record label extension of the fabulous Gimme Gimmie Gimmie blog-/zine empire. Piss Shivers are a Brisbane duo whose debut LP kicks up a highly flammable fuss located vaguely inside the Garage-, Post Punk and Postcore coordinates, sometimes reminding me of a Crisis Man-meet-Hot Snakes hybrid while at other points you might be reminded of early Teenanger, the pitch-black postcore dystopias of Video, VHS or the furious anger of Wymyns Prysyn. Further i'm recalling the likes of Xetas, Gaffer, Ascot Stabber and Batpiss… maybe a bit of Zhoop/Djinn/Feed energy aswell in the more primitive, straightforward moments.
I hadn't heard from these Nashville folks for a long time after their promising demo in 2019. Well, they're back now and their sound's more furious than ever, brewing up a perfect storm of garage-infused hardcore punk with hints of, say, Acrylics, early Electric Chair, Launcher, Liquid Assets, Mystic Inane, Cement Shoes and Crisis Man being just a few of the things that pop into my head at first glance.
Garage punk meets math rock meets psychedelia meets postcore on this breathless new tape by Minneapolis group Tricks, at different times bearing similarities to recent groups as diverse as Reality Group, Uranium Club, Yammerer, Big Bopper, Patti, Ex-Cult, Rolex, Shark Toys, Sauna Youth… at times you might even percieve a slight 90s Dischord vibe á la Jawbox, Faraquet and Medications.
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.
An incredibly self-assured debut tape by a group from Victoria, Canada bursting onto the scene fully formed and mature, bringing to life inventive, haunting and elaborately constructed epics compacted into short, dense hardcore tracks in which they let only the murkiest tendencies of noisy hard-/postcore groups á la Acrylics, Vidro, early Bad Breeding collide with an overall aesthetic branching out deep into the suppressed subconscious, uncanny realms of death rock-/dungeon related or otherwise "blackened" or metal infused noise.
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.