Three hardcore releases especially stuck out this week, all of 'em more or less treading off the genre's beaten paths. The most conventionally sounding - relatively speaking of course - is the EP by People's Temple on NY label RoachLeg Records, giving us an extremely tuneful variation on 80s hardcore, at times coming across like a blend of Circle Jerks with early-to-middle-era Naked Raygun and with occasional flourishes of Hüsker Dü to boot. Of more recend Bands, Fried E/m might also fit the bill. Hickey's tape on Archfiend records then infuses contemporary strands of garage-, synth- and eggpunk weirdness with plenty of oldschool hardcore energy, along the way also evoking the some vibes of Flipper, Spike in Vain, Broken Talent… With this release, we might just be entering the eggcore era! Montreal's Hood Rats operate in a vaguely similar territory, also having a sound grounded in garage punk brimming with lo-fi eggpunk quirkyness just as much as with an unkempt KBD energy and the tunes to make it stick.
On their second full length, Malbourne group Civic continue hold up the banner of oldschool garage punk of the heavily Birdman-indebted variety while still cautiously expanding on their sonic spectrum. Blood Rushes, for example, has some power pop vibe to it, reminiscent of early Scientists while in Trick of the Light, a touch of mid-eighties Wipers in the verses leads into some serious New Christs-like riffing in the chorus.
More awesome shit courtesy of Painters Tapes by a Detroit group having a strong proto-grunge vibe to them that wouldn't seem out of place next to early Mudhoney, U-Men, Feedtime, X (the australian group) or 80s Scientists. Also you might find some traces of american proto noise rock á la Flipper, Broken Talent just as well as more recent groups roughly in the orbit of TVO or Vexx in there.
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.
A new mini LP by Atlanta's post punk force of nature Nag - i guess everybody knows what to expect at this point and i'm totally okay with that as there still ain't a whole lot of groups quite like them. Despite the raw ingredients of their sound being as old as post punk itself, there's a unique quality to their vision, about as simplistic as you can get away with in some places while amazingly elaborate where it counts in others, with the occasional touch of psychedelia and hammered home with a rough and unrelenting force.
I overlooked this this gem by South Carolina dude or band Sid Eargle the first time around so i'm glad the greek label Body Blows shoved this in my face a second time. Hidden inbetween a mess of instrumentals and interludes there's also an excellent album to be found plundering away at oldschool garage and punk history with an undeniable Dead Boys vibe, among other things.
A super effective bunch of straightforward punk smashers by a Perth grounp - simple at first glance yet always carefully constructed for maximum impact. Plausible comparisons from recent years would include bands such as Xetas, Cool Jerks, Flowers of Evil or Dead Years while from long before that, you might see flashes of Naked Raygun, Laughing Hyenas, Hot Snakes, Man Sized Action and the like…
The second full length of these frenchmen is a bucket of super straightforward, simple and catchy-as-fuck oldschool garage punk joy sparkling with '77 energy - there's nothing too smart about if yet plenty to delight in nonetheless when these folks kick up a primitive storm coming across a bit like a mix of Buck Biloxi and the Fucks, The Spits, The Uglies and - quite obviously - Sick Thoughts.
Debut tape of a Perth duo featuring folks otherwise known from Ghoulies and Aborted Tortoise… just as you'd expect from that, this thing fucking rips! A Lo-Fi DIY garage punk vibe meets some oldschool melodious '77 simplicity, occasionally also crossing over into rather contemporary sounding post punk- and egg-related territories. This is out on Goodbye Boozy and Under The Gun Records but this shit would also fit right in with the Warttman posse so it's probably no coincidence that some dude also involved with Tee Vee Repairman and Satanic Togas contributed some creative input here as well.
Another primitive blast of no-bulllshit hardcore-infused garage punk by a group kinda predestined to get released on Total Punk Records, conjuring up only the most primal and chaotic tendencies of acts like Crisis Man, Liquid Assets, Launcher, Mystic Inane, Fried Egg… and maybe a slight hint of The Mentally Ill on top?
