Following up on a neat first EP from last year, this Providence, Rhode Island group's second batch of tunes is a marked refinement in pretty much every aspect, their mix of garage punk and power pop having reached a whole new level of catchyness that also wouldn't sound out of place next to shit like Sweet Reaper, Power Pants, Gee Tee, Alien Nosejob, Set-Top Box or Satanic Togas.
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Britain's most awesome DIY melodic post punk / power pop group of our time has yet another digital single out and you already guessed it: It's the greatest thing in the world ever - six-and-a-half minutes of pure ecstatic bliss and by the way, what have y'all been doing all the fucking time because in a just world, these folks would be on top of everything selling out fucking arenas. Also, why the hell hasn't there been some compilation LP on Drunken Sailor or Erste Theke or Total Punk or whatever yet? It's about fucking time i'd say. Argh, everyone out there can be so goddamn useless sometimes…
This Madison, Wisconsin duo's second LP delivers more of their very own brand of moderately Devo-fied, catchy little Garage-, Post Punk and Power Pop constructs with some added Wire-esque moments. What still came across as a bit samey and overpowering on the first record has gained a lot in class and maturity on this one - not least thanks to tons more variety - calling to mind groups as diverse as Powerplant, Andy Human & The Reptoids, Nick Normal, Smirk, Deletions, Why Bother?, Isotope Soap and Erik Nervous.
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The long-playing debut of this group from Marseille, France - originally self-released in 2021 and recently reissued by Lyon label Echo Canyon - is a bottomless well of outrageously catchy power pop gems brought to the next level by rock-solid songwriting chops. I'm reminded of a full wealth of contemporary household names like Tommy and the Commies, Warm Soda, Radioactivity, Mr. Teenage, Corner Boys, Bad Sports or Patsy's Rats.
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Their recent split tape with Dadgad was plenty of fun already and their newest EP, marking the Roman group's (formerly known as the garage one-man-band Mustard) debut as a full band lineup, dials up the goodness to ridiculous levels with an overall vibe that you might compare to the best moments of fairly melodic garage punk acts á la Liquids, Booji Boys or Erik Nervous, with some added psychedelic/british invasion Vibe akin to, say, the Resonars in the closing track Samurai.
On this record, every new song kinda reminds me of a different bunch of groups which is great really, many of those being australian which is also rarely a bad sign! The opening track, for example contains echoes of The Estranged, Red Dons, Xetas, Civic, a touch of Saints and Birdman. True Method has the sleazy rockin' qualities of Golden Pelicans and something else i can't really put my finger on right now. Throttle has some dumb straight-ahead Feedtime energy to it and the subsequent stretch of songs then has straightforward garage punk á la Ex-Cult, Sauna Youth blending into more melodic garage and power pop shit á la Radioacticity, Bad Sports, Mind Spiders, Bed Wettin' Bad Boys. Potential to Ride shares a similar vibe with psychedelically inclined post punk acts á la Public Eye, Waste Man or Marbled Eye. Finally, the two closing tracks remind me of the simple, undiluted impact of australian powerhouses Split System, Polute, Jackson Reid Briggs and the Heaters. All of this is grounded in unfailing, confident songcraft and compacted into an incredibly tight, certified all-killer LP.
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Following their most ambitious record so far in last year's Material LP, which expanded the sonic pallette out into the weirder fringes of somewhat Desperate Bicycles-leaning art punk and also featured some of the most infectious power pop songwriting of that year, the newest 7" by Nick Vicario aka Smirk, who's also known as a member of Public Eye, Crisis Man und Cemento among others, keeps things comparatively simple and straightforward this time while his heavily sample-backed songs and arrangements still unerringly hit their mark every single time.
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I think this is the same band i've been yapping about many moons ago.. Their 2016 EP appears to have been completely wiped from the face of the earth and the web though, which is a fucking shame really 'cos this was good stuff already. But admittedly, this shit is so much better… Melodic punk and garage vibes rule supreme here with more than a little hint of Dickies and some distinct '77 and power pop flavors that would already make for a perfectly solid EP. What propells this one from good to plain out-of-the-ballpark spectacular though are the advanced songwriting chops on display here, running circles around 99% of all other current punk groups playing simple, straightforward pop tunes. This is truly transcendent, next-level shit, i mean it!
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This San Antonio, Texas group delights with a throwback to the most melodic parts of eighties punk, indie- and college rock, clearly informed by the likes of Hüsker Dü, Replacements, Moving Targets, Guided By Voices and Dinosaur Jr. in the more jangly melodic moments, as well as some early Naked Raygun in the straight-ahead rockin' tunes, all of it held together by frictionless songwriting that wouldn't feel too out of place with more recent bands á la Booji Boys, Bad Sports, TV Crime or Bed Wettin' Bad Boys either.
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Over the course of the past year or two, San Antonio, Texas group Sex Mex have proven to be a reliable bet with their knack for catchy garage-/synth punk and fuzz pop tunes. Their newest batch doesn't disappoint either, delivering a pop goodness highly indebted, among other things, to the more melodic end of the Reatard-related universe, Lost Sounds being the most obvious comparison here but also newer shit á la The Gobs, Witch Piss or Ghoulies wouldn't be too far off.
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