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!
Whatever there is to be found out about this Cincinnati, Ohio group is cloaked in a veil of uncertainty, not helped in the least by that kinda stereotypical "loser band" history given on this cassette's bandcamp page. So, probably, there are folks known from groups like The Serfs, The Drin, Crime of Passing and Motorbike at work here and at least some of the songs on this can be traced back to the year 2019, when they first appeared on the Pedestrian Sentiments EP. Otherwise i'm really not too sure if any of the details given are to be believed. You can't argue with the music though, which kicks ass from start to finish, in some way evoking the aesthetics, varying fidelity and stylistic variety of golden era Guided By Voices, otherwise roughly oscillating between jangly power pop in the vein of, say, Bed Wettin' Bad Boys or Bad Sports in tracks like Coward Of The State, Wannabe (A Star) and Silver Queen; grimy psychedelic garage rock (Didn't Win The Lottery, Obnoxious And A Neu) as well as a couple of catchy melodic garage punk smashers carrying the signature of groups á la Booji Boys, Tyvek and Parquet Courts. It's Been A Bad Week kinda resembles the garage-drenched noise aesthetics of A Place To Bury Strangers, Peyton's Kids has sort of a Woolen Men feel to it and throughout, the folk-infused post punk of earlier Chronophage comes to mind more than once.
Is that title meant to be understood as a 13th Floor Elevators reference? If so, it kinda fits (plus a ton of Kinks in here as well, i'd say…) as this LP marks the closest the eclectic project of Jake Robertson (Ausmuteants, Smarts, Drug Sweat, etc…) has ever approached classic '60s garage rock territory - a proposition that could easily turn out a recipie for pure boredom in the hands of lesser musicians, but damn… this dude simply knows how to construct and carry a catchy tune. Add to the mix lots of ancient power pop of only the saddest kind and you get an LP that will surely turn out a bit difficult to swallow for some fans of his broader work, yet also doesn't seem too out-of-place if you're familiar with the breadth of previous Alien Nosejob releases, as Robertson has already dabbled in similar fare on albums such as Various Fads and Technological Achievements (2018) and Suddenly Everything Is Twice As Loud (2020), although here he finally goes all-in on this overwhelming sense of doom, an all-devouring black cloud of deep melancholia.
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.
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.
I gotta say, following up on a promising but still somewhat undercooked and inconsistent debut tape from two years ago, i'm kinda blown away by the hypnotic pull of this second album by an Oakland (?) group having among their ranks members of a whole bunch of household numbers - The World, Andy Human and the Reptoids, Rays and Violent Change might just be the most familiar names among those for longtime watchers of this space, but these are just the tip of the iceberg really. While you can plausibly pick out some similarities to all these groups, i'm way more reminded of the relaxed post- and garage punk of australian groups UV Race and Wireheads, enhanced with some flavor of british psychedelia (Vital Idles come to mind as a contemporary reference), even a smidge of Wire and early Barrett-era Pink Floyd in Let The Light In. Just as well though, they might have drawn plenty of inspiration from '70s-'80s british DIY culture with groups á la Membranes, Swell Maps, Mekons and Desperate Bicycles being the closest comparisons i can pull out of my ass right now.
Brilliant new shit from folks who've previously been playing, among others, in Melbourne's infamously abrasive post punk act Sewers as well as the somewhat more accessible, indie rock-leaning outfit Love Of Diagrams. What we get here is once again pretty much off the beaten path, a heavily folk-infused melange in which the americana-drenched punk of, say, Angst collides with some 80s Scientists, a hint of british psychedelia and plenty of paisley underground jangleness - a deep melancholia, at times a little reminiscent of Brisbane's Kitchen's Floor finding its outlet in nonetheless catchy-as-fuck melodies, embedded into a kinda fuzzy, nebulous soundscape. Other times, the melodic post punk of The Estranged comes to mind or the relaxed psychedelic garage- and power pop of White Fence, The Cairo Gang. Other plausible references include more or less recent groups á la Damak, earlier Chronophage, Dead Finks, Refedex and The Molds.
More weird-ass shit, as perverted and loveable as ever, by that garage dungeon blues duo from Karlsruhe, Germany who so far have made a dent or two with a couple of EPs approaching that whole "dungeon" aesthetic with a pronounced acid rock bent. Kinda like oldschool Oh Sees jamminess being spiked with a generous dose of early Strange Attractor depravity in what ultimately amounts to pretty much their own type of surreal fever dream.
A whole barrage of digital singles in recent weeks already appeared to foreshadow a new record by the London, Ontario group and indeed here it is, their second LP in all its glory, carrying an excellent new batch of their quite distinct, catchy as hell, always slightly off-kilter and quirky genre mixture containing elements of garage-, post- and synth punk, space- and psychedelic rock. You might compare some bits and pieces here to such groups as Pow!, Useless Eaters and of course the recent collaboration Telegenic Pleasures which also features some of the band members at work here - at this point though, i'd say they're pretty much carved out their own, instantly recognizable little niche.
What kind of twisted punk student exchange program would lead to an album being recorded both in London, Ontario and London, England? The band committing the deed appears to have connnections to some London's Gaggers and Miscalculations as well as some other London's Isolation Party and Mononegatives - the latter being the most obvious comparison though, as their very own brand of spaced-out synth- and garage punk reigns supreme on this record too, along with flourishes of Pow!, Useless Eaters, Freak Genes, Isotope Soap, Mind Spiders, Powerplant and Digital Leather. Fucking awesome shit, in other words.
