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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
New stuff from Gee Tee or Vee or whatever, this dude's shit is all good! On this LP, he's holding a nice balance between the power pop tendencies of his recent Tee Vee Repairman records and the somewhat more garage-leaning projects of his á la Satanic Togas, Research Reactor Corp. and Set-Top Box, making for another fine batch of fuzzed-out garage pop tunes, among them some of his most infectious ones so far, that's for sure.
A duo made up of Kimi Recor and Vinny "Vaguess" Earley, you can't really overlook the similarities to the latter dude's recorded output but there's also more going on here. Starting off from a familiar mix of garage- and post punk there's some clear Lithics kind of energy in some places or Welt Star, another Earley-related project comes to mind while songs like Staring at the Sun and Please 3 sound like forgotten Woolen Men tunes that fell through the cracks somewhere and Chameleon has the vibe of a Digital Leather deep cut from an alternate cold-wave reality.
Not long after the recent 7" on Goodbye Boozy Records we get the first LP of Sydney's Tee Vee Repairman on that other garage punk powerhouse label Total Punk. As you might've guessed this is another juicy treat of simple and stupid melodic garage punk and power pop delight well suited for fans of shit like Bad Sports, Tommy and the Commies and Bed Wettin' Bad Boys while of the dude's own other projects, you might be most reminded of a sugar-coated version of Satanic Togas or recent R.M.F.C..
Class from Tucson, Arizona deliver their strongest release so far via the seemingly infallible Feel It Records. Their whereabouts certainly make The Resonars come to mind and indeed their mastermind Matt Rendon has been involved in the production and further similarities can be drawn in their somewhat british invasion-fueled brand of slightly psychedelic brand of garage rock, jangle- and power pop. Class, however, deal in a way more straightforward and rougher-edged garage punk sound - the overall vibe of Burning Cash wouldn't feel out of place on the recent Strange Attractor LP.
It took the Bristol group just shy of a year to come up with the newest installment in their, so far, absolutely spectacular and flawless run of (digital) singles. I'm glad to announce that i've got nothing new to say about this one - these two tunes are yet another masterclass of melodic post punk and power pop songcraft with clear echoes of Buzzcocks, Television Personalities, Mekons and many more artefacts of predominantly british DIY punk history.
