Way more egg- than cowpunk, what this group from Poznań, Poland sets out to overwhelm our senses with. This shit is certainly among the more out-there offerings at the altar of playful insanity the genre has given us so far and it’s a bottomless well of unpredictable fun that threatens to fall apart or go up in flames any moment but is so ridiculously satisfying while it lasts, reminding me of a colorful and markedly international bunch of acts such as early Skull Cult, Goblin Daycare, Paulo Vicious, Metdog, Beer, Cool Sorcery… and you can’t leave out Barcelona’s genre overlords Prison Affair of course.
Exquisite new spaced-out goodness on the fantastic second EP of this singaporean group whose acid-drenched haze of garage-, post- and synth punk feels a bit like a way more pissed-off variant of shit á la Useless Eaters, Ex-Cult, Pow! or Mononegatives, with just a smidge of rowdy primitive energy á la early Strange Attractor thrown in for good measure!
It’s been over six years since we’ve last heard from this Bloomington, Indiana group which by now must be considered a highly influential force on the current garage-, synth- and eggpunk scene while in the meantime, members of the group have pumped their creative juices into acts like Belly Jelly, QQQL, Dummy and Big Hog. Now that they finally break the deafening silence, i gotta say this shit works better than ever in what must be the strongest set of tunes they’ve delivered so far. Just a tiny bit less weird and cluttered than on their previous efforts with more grounded, catchy and melodic song foundations and echoes of the likes of Tyvek, Marked Men and Lost Sounds, this is a strikingly mature work with all the hallmarks of a band that took a long break to branch out creatively in other projects, now reconvening to apply everything they’ve learned along the way with sleepwalking precision to an effortlessly wrecking result.
Now that’s some hot shit, this debut tape by some dude from Lansing, Michigan. The fuzzed-out garage punk inferno of Cracked lays out a bit of a false trail for us at first, as the overall vibe then immediately shifts toward more of a noisy synth punk direction for the remaining tracks covering a good variety of stylistic flavors and accordingly, reminding me of a full ecclectic grab bag of acts in the wider synth-/electro-/sample punk spectrum including the likes of Beef, ISS, Heavy Metal, Klint, The Garden, Victor, Spyroids, R. Clown, Paulo Vicious and Kerozine.
Don’t expect anything groundbreaking here ‘cos with Power Pants you always know exactly what you’re gonna get and even the freakin’ early Ramones arguably had more stylistic breadth than this group. Yet, their songs never miss the mark and this entirely unfussy formula of catchy garage punk remains insanely appealing to me and as long as we continually get delivered tunes as potent as May I Rest or You’re Invited, i’m gonna gratefully devour each new sugary health hazard Power Pants throw at me. Woof!
Video game themed punk is not exactly a predictor of great creativity and artistic merit but thankfully, this Fresno, California group’s second EP bucks the trend of toothless chiptune sounds and instead delivers some delicious treats of fuzzy lo-fi electro punk with plenty of bite which at different points you might find vaguely reminiscent of groups á la S.B.F., ISIS, Exit Mould, Penance Hall, Kerozine, Giorgio Murderer or that Zhoop/Djinn/etc.-dude’s more electronically leaning alter egos Nightman and Brundle.
Less than a week into the new year, Erste Theke Tonträger has already put out 2025’s first blockbuster release… digitally, at least. The Ghoulies from Perth, Australia are among those groups where it feels like they’ve been around for much longer than they actually were, having conquered their own little space inside the garage-/synth-/eggpunk gamut – not at all by considerably shaking up its foundations but rather by perfecting existing playbooks to their maximum sophistication and impact, plus, they always have the bewitching tunes to make it all stick. At many points, their sound is vaguely reminiscent somewhat oldschool-ish artifacts predating the whole eggpunk umbrella term á la early Ausmuteants, Quitter, Drug Sweat, while perfectly fitting in with more recent shit like Cherry Cheeks, Satanic Togas, Research Reactor Corp., Gee Tee, Kitchen People or Tommy Cossack & The Degenerators all the same.
Having already released a whole ass full of nifty EPs and splits neatly fitting in with much of the the current eggpunk mold, their previous one recently marked a notable departure into a rougher, fuzzed-out aesthetic form. The newest release by this group based in Rome, Italy feels like a successful integration of both tendencies, sharing a similar quality to weirdo tunes by the likes of Die TV, Electric Prawns 2, Temporary Curse and recent Erik Nervous.
The debut tape via Goodbye Boozy of this Haarlem, Netherlands group is yet another quality release of egg-adjacent, unwieldy garage punk chaos that kinda sounds like a synth-infused Uranium Club in its more streamlined and restrained moments while at other points reaching a level of weirdness akin to infamous garage punk bafflers and headscratchers á la Checkpoint, Pressure Pin, Liquid Face, Skull Cult and Belly Jelly.
This second EP by an Austin group consisting of, quite possibly, fully imaginary members save for some lone dude in his bedroom, hits all the right pain- and pleasure points of the nervous system with three burning dumpsters worth of primitive and raw-as-fuck three-chord garage- and fuzz punk behaving just about demented enough to please demanding connoisseurs of other stupid fucking shit á la Buck Biloxi, ISIS or Giorgio Murderer. Love it.
