Reviews

Goodbye Boozy

3D & the Holograms VR Execution EP

Sydney larrikins Billy (from RESEARCH REACTOR CORP.) and Ishka (from SATANIC TOGAS or TEE-VEE REPAIRMAN or SET-TOP BOX or every other band in Sydney) virtually team up with JJ from Olympia, WA’s the GOBS to bring you four tracks of the fucked punk you’d expect from this lot. With Billy on vocals, it’s gonna be hard for this thing to not sound like RESEARCH REACTOR CORP., but this stuff is faster, more full-on, and slightly less cartoony…for the most part. The first three tracks are drum machine punk takes on the REATARDS or PERSUADERS. It’s really good shit—some of my favorite tunes these dudes have cranked out, particularly “Projection.” Then there’s “MS-DOS,” which is the same type of stuff, but in more of a rubber band-y Sega Genesis (or, for the non-US world, Mega Drive)-rock vein. It’s borderline too silly, but I love these dudes too much to be that bothered by it. Cool record! Apparently, an LP is just over the horizon, to, so be on the lookout for that!

Aborted Tortoise Scale Model Subsistence Vendor EP

Frenetic, lo-fi rock’n’roll punk from Perth, Australia that sounds like a redux of the early 2000s—only this time around, the superficial brattiness has been replaced with something a bit more existential. Pulling a page from THEE HEADCOATS’ book, the crazed singing and super precise rock’n’roll riffs combine to deliver a contained mess that is wildly high energy without boiling over completely. The whole production sounds like it is about to burst at the seams, possibly owing to it being recorded and mixed on a four-track. You can try to imitate the effect of pushing a four-track tape recording to its mechanical limits, but there really is something special and (dare I say) nostalgic about the sound of the real thing. Recommended!

Belly Jelly What It Is EP

Someone has idolized CONEHEADS and now we have another bedroom punk project about cell phones and whatever else. I wish I had a joke to tell about this band but all I can say is that “BELLY JELLY” just seems to be the butt of the joke about modern punk. If squiggly chipmunk DEVO t-shirt computer simulation punk is your thing, then gorge yourself. I appreciate the Bay State representation with the NERVOUS EATERS cover and the pace change on “Big Questions” is good, but goddamn, this all sounds like Mark Winter scratching his pubes.

Big Chungus Defecation Nation cassette

The CHUNGUS returns with more grody, grimy songs about excrement, vomit, jacking it, and more! Outsider punk from NJ, as easy to love as it is to hate. Five songs of nasty, mid-tempo, synth-squealing, drum-machine-driven punk with the snarkiest vocals you could ever possibly imagine. I would place my bets that this might be one of the most polarizing bands in all of punk currently. Punkers are either going to absolutely love this or be wildly disgusted by it! I’m not gonna tell you how you should think, but I will turn it on again while I continue pondering the hard-hitting questions asked by BIG CHUNGUS on this release, such as “why are you self-hating when you could be masturbating?”. Ya know, that’s a damn good question, CHUNGUS.

Billiam Turrets Over Craigieburn EP

Nothing like straightforward, stripped-down punk to cleanse the palate. Apart from the distorted vocals, which remind me of MR. CLIT AND THE PINK CIGARETTES (who bark into a microphone made from a banana phone), these six tracks are cleanly recorded, mid-tempo, lo-fi, and fun. “Number 19 Pancake Parlor Special” features some keyboard action that hearkens back to some early B-52’S vibes. Great fun out of Melbourne. 

Buck Biloxi and the Fucks Put You in the Gulag EP

It takes a special talent to write super catchy pissed-off songs. This EP contains three. Minimalist trashy garage punk with biting lyrics that cause you to sing along while also looking over your shoulder. The topics are mindless consumerism and herd mentality. “I Would Rather Die” uses the riff from “Nervous Breakdown” for a humorous anti-technology tune. The title track reminds you “Money is your shitty God.” Great stuff as usual from BUCK BILOXI AND THE FUCKS.

C.P.R. Doll Music for Pleasure cassette

You might get excited looking at all the folks attached to this project—the uniformly excellent Goodbye Boozy and Under the Gun labels, players from ABORTED TORTOISE and GHOULIES, cameos from other top-tier Aussie acts like SATANIC TOGAS and TEE VEE REPAIRMAN. Well, stay excited, because this tape is rough-and-rumble like all the best coming out of Australia. It has an added layer of spaced-out darkness, even with the faintest cold touches of deathrock (especially in the bass) that really sends it home. The melodic shout-along vocals are dialed-in and the rhythms have that beautiful, almost Teutonic motorik android quality that locks you into a bop you can’t escape. Everyone involved in this beautifully incestuous rock scene just keeps getting better and better and it’s exhilarating to hear.

Cave Curse Buried / Trash People 7″

I put this on expecting wild destruction Á  la LOST SOUNDS, but after listening to the A-side I would say it’s low on the “end of the world” synth punk destruction sound?! “Buried” sounds like a goth MODERN ENGLISH to me. Maybe it’s the vocals?! The B-side is more savage and maybe more true to what I have heard about this Bobby Hussy band, but the A-side is almost like a pop song! Like I can imagine KROQ playing it circa 1986?? I would even recommend it to you if you were a fan of more chorus pedal darkwave/goth stuff alongside that Memphis wave sound…

Dadar Iron Cage LP

Well-executed lo-fi egg-punk directly from Parma, Italy. DADAR’s fourth album sounds really balanced, with the right amount of loop effects and synth lines that follow the rhythm of the song, and manages to deliver a really good sound. Also, the vocals are a lil’ bit dubbed,  accomplishing that garage feeling egg-punk should evoke. Suggested tracks: “Rewiring,” “Sound of Sirens,” and the last track of this album, “112.” Reminds me of WWW, cyberpunk friends from Argentina. If you like synth sounds and eggy garage punk, this is an excellent album for you. If you wish to hear emerging bands from other countries that aren’t the US or UK playing fine egg-punk, this is your choice for a starting place (at least in Europe).

Dadar I’m a Töch EP

I don’t really know what a “dadar” is. Internet searches tell me it’s either a neighborhood in Mumbai or a type of Indonesian omelette. I doubt the band is going for either of those meanings. They’re not unlike an omelette, though—simple, maybe a little cheesy, but filled with enough interesting ingredients to be satisfying. Anyway, DADAR is a synth-driven garage punk band out of the tiny town of Rovereto in Northern Italy. This is their second 7″, and it’s got a couple of sub-two-minute originals on the A-side and a cover of a track by Italian art-punk band FHEDOLTS on the flip. The originals are good enough. “I’m a Töch” sounds like any of those BLACK LIPS copycat bands that popped up in the late ’00s, maybe with a little HANK WOOD thrown in, and “Calendarize” sounds like a reasonable facsimile of AUSMUTEANTS (in a good way). But I really dig this cover—the minimal post-punk synth melody and talk-sung vocals taken from the original sound great fleshed out with this band’s chunky garage punk sound. Definitely worth a listen!

Collective Hardcore / Disco Junk split EP

What we have here is a double-dose of Melbourne teen go-getter Billiam, a.k.a. Billy Twyford!  You get a couple of tracks from his full band DISCO JUNK on the A-side, and three tracks from his solo recording project COLLECTIVE HARDCORE on the flip. I’ve had trouble deciding which I prefer, which I guess suggests both are pretty good. But I think the COLLECTIVE HARDCORE side takes it by a hair. The weirdo self-aware egg-punk (listen out for a CONEHEADS sample) works a little better than the straightforward, garage-y KBD stuff from DISCO JUNK. Plus, “Panic Attack” really smokes!

Drunk Mums Adderall / Headshrinker 7″

What do they put in the kids food in Australia that makes them all grow up to be such lovely angular punks? This is a killer single full of good clean fun, delivered with the kind of booksmart smarm that’s practically omnipresent these days in Melbourne. The flip side “Headshrinker” ups the stakes with a little more fury without losing any of the charm. This is locked-in snotty rockn’roll just the way we like it.

Gee Tee Atomic EP

We’ve got another winner from Sydney’s leading Gas Station Rock band, GEE TEE. Opening with lo-fi RAMONES-y vibes accented by warbly keys, “Kombat Kitchen” had me nice and cozy from the get-go. “Mutant World” serves up a buzzing garage groove. Laid-back title track “Atomic” sounds like it is wearing sunglasses while the world melts, and “Dudes In The Valley” ends it off by inducing both grins and the urge to start the record over again. Well-played.

Gee Tee Vee Halloween 21 EP

You know who they are, you know it’s good, but still allow me to dive in with my big critical brain to this freaky little handful of tunes from TEE VEE REPAIRMAN and GEE TEE (more accurately, frontman Kel Mason). These tracks are lo-fi, crunchy joy bombs that sit precisely in the uniformly excellent discographies of both artists. Killer originals, cracking snares, and buzzing guitars—there’s even a trick ‘r’ treat of a cover of the BOYS’ “First Time” to put in your bag and check for hidden razor blades. It’s always good to see this loose coalition of bands keep the spirit of early ’00s garage punk alive and supercharged into the now. I won’t throw around the usual references, but this is the type of attitude that first turned my ear to this style and it’s just getting better.

Aborted Tortoise / Ghoulies Euro Tour split EP

Hey dummy. You like what the hell is going on over in the garages of Australia? You don’t know what I’m talking about? Then get right immediately, because here’s a split featuring two of the best of the seemingly endlessly fertile scene of garage punks keeping the genre alive, all brought to you by the evergreen tastemaker Goodbye Boozy. These two bands in particular share members, and it sure sounds like it. Both sides are deliciously spiky, bratty, and econo. Throw in some syrupy synth, and you’ve got yourself the exact kind of potent brew I’m reaching for any day of the week. If you’re already in the club, you already picked this one up. If not, have a listen and get on board speedy-like.

Ghoulies Reprogram EP

Synths and punk—it’s not that they don’t mix, but it’s tough enough to blend the two that it’s generally advisable to keep them separate. All too often, you’ll end up sounding like a punk band with a synth rather than a synth punk band. This is especially true when you opt for some squiggly new wave timbre. Now, I’m not sure GHOULIES—a Perth act featuring members of ABORTED TORTOISE and KITCHEN PEOPLE—avoid this pitfall entirely, but it definitely doesn’t sound like they just have a synth going in the background (or worse, drowning out the rest of the band). Over the seven tracks on this EP, they weave synth lines—often very silly ones—into their brand of frenetic, start/stop garage punk, and it really gives the record a delirious edge that pairs nicely with the unhinged, multi-tracked vocals you’re getting on a lot of these tracks. Not every track on here works, but the ones that don’t are still short enough that you’ll barely notice. At the very least, give the opening track “B.O.” a listen—it smokes!

Lamictal Violent Convulsions cassette

Minimal weird garage punk rock from California that reminds me of a merge between DANNY’S FAVORITES and PRISON AFFAIR, but with hardcore cadences and speed. According to the Bandcamp page of the label Goodbye Boozy, we have little information about the one-man band that is Alex Coletto (X-ACTO, GNARLES MANSON). Four tracks in less than four minutes is my kind of synth punk (or should I say synth-hardcore?). Limited to twenty tapes, it’s a must-listen for enthusiasts of synth punk/egg-punk/totally weird minimal punk and its derivatives. Suggested tracks: “Violent Convulsions” (its title exactly depicts the song) and “Aura.. When you are starting to enjoy it, it abruptly ends, like all good things in life.

Lamictal Doctor’s Orders cassette

A groovy, garage-fueled egg attack, LAMICTAL is the solo project of a gentleman named Alex from California. Clearly he’s not lying when he states that he “doesn’t care what the doctor says” on “Doctor Says,” as this tape sounds like he’s abandoned prescriptions to create his own kind of medication.

Liquid Face II EP

These Australian synth punks may have created the first treaty between the chains and the eggs with this record. Imagine the awkward handshake. You know the chains would squeeze too hard. Quirky synths zig and zag over loud punk guitars, drum machines, and gruff vocals. The shouted, reverbed hardcore vocals are what really set these folks apart from most current synth punk projects—the music is still bouncy, but this is most definitely a punk record. “Levitation” is a jam where the keyboards complement the guitars perfectly into a solid driving, ominous force. “Conflicted Interest” works equally well and reminds me of ANNO OMEGA (who put out one of my favorite releases last year). Good record for bruisers as well as those guys who do somersaults through the pit.

Lothario Drunk Fuck / Black Hair 7″

I want to take a moment to commend Mr. Goodbye Boozy. I feel like the 7”—the best medium for punk!—is becoming an endangered format. Most labels are either abandoning them entirely, or charging, like, $12 a record to make them financially viable, which I have to imagine contributes to their waning popularity. Meanwhile, Goodbye Boozy is pumping them out like there’s still a market for stocking jukeboxes, and offering them up at fairly punk-friendly prices. And he continues to hook up with acts that are perfect for the format. Take for instance LOTARIO, a new recording project from Melbourne artist Annaliese Redlich (IMPERIAL LEATHER/Triple R’s Neon Sunset program). Here we’re getting two quick, catchy tunes, one per side, about being dumb and horny and bored. It’s part dum-dum garage punk à la BUCK BILOXI (who’s playing drums here), part An Ideal For Living-era JOY DIVISION, part something with a more industrial timbre, like late ’00s LILI Z, but also still a little melodic and gentle (particularly this B-side). It’s great! Do I need more than five minutes of it? I mean, I’d certainly take it! But let’s just appreciate this release for what it is: an easy-to-digest portion of cool punk and a lovely artifact that doubles as a great argument for the continued existence of the best format. You should buy a copy!

Mainframe Employee / RIP 7″

Pretend for a minute you’re a mad scientist and you’ve got some crazy-ass experiment on the boil that involves weapons-grade plutonium, a fist full of Adderall, and—I don’t know—a Margaritaville brand “frozen concoction maker.” You’re working late, so you’ve got some lively tunes cranked to keep you from nodding off—a mix of LIQUIDS, C.C.T.V., and DEE DEE RAMONE. But—oh no—something goes wrong while you’re flipping a record! You turn around to see your now out-of-control experiment advancing across the room and watch as it engulfs a lab table, upon which sits a VHS copy of Rollerball that you had dubbed over with old episodes of Voltron and Beakman’s World. But as the smoke clears and dust settles, you notice the cassette…is…moving. It’s…it’s alive. A miracle! Realizing what a blessing this is, you do the only logical thing—make it form a band…a band that ends up becoming RESEARCH REACTOR CORP…OK, now take that same story and swap out the VHS with a thumb drive full of Snorks episodes. You’d likely end up with MAINFRAME! Anyway, MAINFRAME is an early-COVID email project between Sean Albert (SKULL CULT, BELLY JELLY) and the two RESEARCH REACTOR CORP. lads, Bill and Ishka (also from SATANIC TOGAS, SET-TOP BOX, etc.). It’s still fucked and fast like RESEARCH REACTOR CORP., but it’s brighter, sillier, and maybe even kind of pop. It’s almost certain to annoy the grumpier denizens of the punk world but be a fun time for everyone else. Single-sided 7″ too, so you don’t have to worry about your experiments going awry while flipping the record.

Maniac Maniac cassette

I was not feeling this one at first, but this collection of off-kilter new wave slow-dancers won me over in the end. First of all, MANIAC: change your name. Discogs lists 27 bands with the same name, several of them well-established and long-running. Also, this music is not maniacal, although the vocals do slightly veer into SAMHAIN-era Danzig on “Good Friends” and “Last Breath.” The rest of the songs sound more like basement-recorded MODERN ENGLISH or GARY NUMAN with thick synths, mid-tempo drum machine beats, and detached crooning. I was ready to pack it in and move on when “Queen” came on. It’s the kind of song that sounds so instantly classic that you wonder if it’s a cover. I checked and I couldn’t tell—is it a cover? It’s catchy, nostalgic, romantic, and danceable. If word gets out, it’ll end up in a Sofia Coppola film. “Take Me Home” works the same way with a perfect NEW ORDER tribute that will swell the hearts of any aging waver. Pop it on, guaranteed make-out sesh.

New Berlin Magnet LP

The new offering from Texas’ NEW BERLIN has this intense, black-and-white collage cover art that does not quite fit the music it contains. I’m not normally a stickler for consistency, but I don’t find these tunes fit as seamlessly as the songs on the Basic Function LP that I thought worked well in a stripped-down, BUCK BILOXI AND THE FUCKS kind of way. The Magnet LP tries out different sonic approaches from song to song and they don’t always jive together so well. You get fuzzed-out power chords but then jangly guitars and power pop licks, distorted vocals then earnest clear vocals, natural sounding drums then antiseptic fake drums—you get the idea. You don’t know which NEW BERLIN is going to show from track to track. You can’t deny the quality of some of these hooks and witty lyrical turns, but it left me with an uneven and unfinished feeling. That said, I really dug the DYLAN cover.

OK Satán Master of Neglect cassette

Copenhagen’s OK SATÁN’s latest cassette release consists of five tracks of garage punk with vocals reminiscent of CHEETAH CHROME MOTHERFUCKERS or even Darby Crash at times. Fuzzed-out, lo-fi trash punk from the city with too much daylight or too much darkness, with noise punk vibes of FLIPPER, NO TREND, or KILSLUG. Soundtrack to slowly losing our minds. It’s a matter of time.

Pat and the Pissers Growth EP

A set of five new rockers from Indianapolis punks PAT AND THE PISSERS. What’s not to like? Unpretentious Midwestern hardcore that is instantly enjoyable while sounding fresh. Opener “Breaking Free” has a heavy breakdown that showcases everything good about this tape: snotty vocals that can turn vicious in a beat, razor guitars, and a fat bass line that occasionally does a sneaky, funk-dabbling scale run. “Context” has a classic, crunchy riff in the chorus that is so good it would fit in any guitar-based music genre, from country to metal. “Grow” features sung vocals over bluesy clean guitar that explodes into familiar punk sounds; the stretching out and quality playing is appreciated. Every track is a winner.

Pat and the Pissers Soil cassette

You might be surprised to learn that Indianapolis has a pretty thriving punk scene. It certainly caught me off guard, and I’ve been living here since 2019. Had you asked me back then, I would have told you that Bloomington (not quite an hour away) was the more happening punk town. I’m pretty sure I would have been right, too. But there were a handful of bands in Indy starting up around that time, including PAT AND THE PISSERS, and slowly but surely a scene seems to have sprung up around them. All of a sudden, tons of new local bands are filling up bills, packing out venues, and actually enticing cool out-of-town acts to swing through. The scene skews hardcore, and PAT AND THE PISSERS are predominantly a hardcore band. But if you give this release a listen (and you should!), you’ll find that it’s not all that straightforward. The twelve songs on this cassette are a hodgepodge of hardcore sounds—I’m hearing snatches of early SoCal hardcore, I Against I BAD BRAINS, and, like, late ’80s Revalation Records—and brattier punk. On the hardcore end of things, you get songs like “Out of Style,” which sounds like a mash-up of CIRCLE JERKS and JUDGE, or “Konner,” which could have been pulled off LAFFING GAS’s last LP. While on the punker side, you get tracks like “Outsourcing”, which is more of a straightforward start/stop sneering punk affair (with sporadic hair metal leads!), or “Working Wage,” which sounds like a less sing-songy SAINTS, with its bratty talk-sung vocals. I think things could be tightened up a bit here and there, and these disparate sounds could be woven together a little more seamlessly, but overall I think these are pretty cool tunes. Excited to see what they do next!

Protruders No More / It’s Not Easy 7″

The latest offering from these modern Montréalers with a serious affinity for the warped underground sounds that emanated from the mid-to-late ’70s post-industrial decay of the American Midwest—think ELECTRIC EELS, PERE UBU, MIRRORS, pretty much the entire musical output of the state of Ohio from that era. The tightly-wound “No More” actually sets its sights a little further west and several decades into the future with a frenetic, paranoid energy more in line with C.C.T.V. and the whole Northwest Indiana basement panic-core scene circa 2014-2016, as the rapid-fire, shouted chorus in a textbook snotty punk lyrical tradition (“I don’t wanna hear you / I don’t see you / I don’t wanna talk to you”) gives way to a skronky, sax-spiked breakdown for about half of the song’s entire two-minute run-time before snapping back into whiplash mode to cross the finish line. Following that, the mid-’60s ROLLING STONES nugget “It’s Not Easy” gets reimagined with a purely PROTRUDERS blown-out proto-punk swagger, all leather jacket and cigarette smoke sleaze as if Jagger and company had started out as a CBGB house band. Two killer cuts on a one-sided 7″, makes up in quality what its format lacks in practicality.

qb qb cassette

QB is a new project from the Russian punks behind projects like FUTURAT and MATERIC. This tape is sonically as lo-fi as lo-fi can be. There’s a current of crunchy distortion running under every track. It’s straightforward garage rock and a raucous bit of fun, and hey, how cool to hear music like this coming out of Russia! QB doesn’t mess around and they make some kick-ass tunes on this tape, so there isn’t anything to complain about here.

Qinqs Edgar Allan Poe EP

Perth punks Alec Thomas and Matt Rodrigues team up to bring you this new recording project. Alec you may know from acts like GHOULIES or KITCHEN. Not sure what you’d know Matt from, nor is it clear who handles what across this five-song EP. In any case, they’ve made a pretty cool record! QINQS play a mix of the same brand of garage-y, ping-pongy, smart-guy post-punk that the URANIUM CLUB peddled and just straightforward COUNTRY TEASERS-core. That is, some of their songs fall into the former category (“Edgar Allen Poe,” probably my favorite track on the record), and some fall in the latter (“The Great White Wonder” and “Roadkill”). I guess the closing track “S.L.O.B.” is somewhere in the middle…or more in, like, INSTITUTE territory, and “(IM) in Hell” is a bit of outlier altogether (I’m having trouble putting my finger on what it reminds me of, but it’s somewhere in the arena of, like, the A FRAMES’ mechanical monotone and some sort of sing-songy sci-fi—this one really didn’t gel with me). Anyway, they maybe lack the wry wit or inimitable creativity of Ben Wallers—though, they certainly give it a go—but it’s really impressive how well they’ve otherwise emulated the COUNTRY TEASERS’ sound. I wish more bands would do that.

The Freakees / Research Reactor Corp. split EP

Goodbye Boozy seems to be cranking out these split 7″s lately. While I’m not generally a fan of the format, I think they could have done worse with this pairing. The A-side is two quick tracks from Sydney-based torch bearers of the NWI sound, RESEARCH REACTOR CORPORATION. And they are just excellent. RCC takes the CONEHEADS’ herky-jerk formula, adds some cartoonishness and menace, and leans a little more into that warbly direct-to-VHS-sounding production. I love it. The FREAKEES, out of L.A., give us two tracks of blown-out, bass-heavy garage punk that skews a bit more punk than garage. It reminds me of the band SCRAPER. Though, instead of deadpan, talk-shout vocals, you get an ear-splitting screech that’s reverbed to hell. I think these are pretty great tracks, but I found the vocals a tad much at times. But FREAKEES gotta freak, I guess!

Revv Amusia cassette

Here we have four sunbaked, relaxed-but-tight tracks of verbed-out rock‘n’roll from Australia (who seem to specialize in it). REVV stands out in how the sound balances more laid-back cruisin’ vibes with a healthy dose of dissonance and angularity. The title track really exemplifies this with guitar licks that slip around hazily and disorienting, all draped across a tight and confident rhythm section. The other cuts are strong, too; a good little tape that gives you what you need.

Satanic Togas Digital World EP

I imagine SATANIC TOGAS would be a ton of fun to see live. What’s not to love about fast, garage-y punk and vocals that sound like they are coming out of a drive-thru loudspeaker? This Aussie band delivers four tracks of unhinged melodies and meandering bass lines, leaving you to think everything is going to spin out of control. They are kind of like MR. CLIT AND THE PINK CIGARETTES with an accent and wackier vocal effects. Good party jams.

Satanic Togas X-Ray Vision LP

More NWI-worship from Down Under! This is the first proper LP from this Sydney project after a handful of cassettes and a split 7″ with GEE TEE. The group seems to be led by the same dude behind Warttman Inc., a cassette label that’s released stuff from like-minded Australian artists RESEARCH REACTOR CORPORATION, R.M.F.C., SET-TOP BOX, and the aforementioned GEE TEE. The TOGAS stand out from that crowd (and their NWI forebears) by leaning a little more heavily on some ultra-cheap synths and really letting their garage influence show. This album is full of good tracks, but definitely give “Skinhead” a listen. Not only does it showcase how they’re not just another CONEHEADS clone (it’s got kind of a WRECKLESS ERIC vibe, even), but it’s just so dumb and so great.

Schizos Fuck Music City EP

Holy moly! I think these guys have finally figured it out. This New Orleans-via-Nashville act got off to a rough start—their 2017 debut as, like, a minimal drum-and-synth OBLIVIANS tribute act really rubbed me the wrong way. Even still, I always felt like they had some promise. And sure enough, they’ve steadily improved from record to record. Their 2020 LP saw them going more of a straight REATARDS route with solid enough results. Then they really tightened things up on last year’s Come Back With a Warrant EP—a fantastic record! But I’ll be damned if Fuck Music City doesn’t manage to blow that record out the water somehow. It’s odd that the addition of Drew Owen a.k.a. SICK THOUGHTS (he’s providing “instruments”) ended up making the band sound less like the REATARDS, but that’s what we’re dealing with. The A-side of the record is three quick tracks that borrow as much from USHC as they do Memphis garage punk. It’s leaner and meaner than anything this project has committed to tape but still scuzzy as all get-out—just perfect shit! Then they get loose on the B-side with “Going South,” a track that runs three-and-a-half minutes and sounds like that period of NWOBHM that was still pretty heavily influenced by boogie rock. It rules. Buy this record!

R.M.F.C. / Set-Top Box split EP

Another absolute banger of a punk record from Australia. This time a split record from two Sydney based-bands, both of which have a slightly quirkier style of post-punk that involves crusty drum machines and heavily distorted vocals. The R.M.F.C side is three short songs that speed through their runtime having an absolute blast on the way. Energetic, lively, and totally off the wall. The flipside with SET-TOP BOX is a much more lo-fi-sounding set of tracks that is shrouded in the strange analog sounds of 8-bit drum machines and vintage toy keyboards. Totally awesome release. Cool in every way!

CEO / Shitbots split EP

This is the type of lo-fi garage rock that inspires spontaneous acts of violence. You will be hard-pressed to find a more crusty, rough-around-the-edges, intensely in-your-face record. On the A-side, SHITBOTS bring two absolutely flaming tracks with all the audio quality of an old CD that’s been burnt in the toaster. On the B-side, CEO brings a much more reigned-in sound. Of the three tracks CEO provides, the majority are led by acoustic guitars, incorporating elements of country and blues.

Sick Thoughts Poor Boys / Drug Rock 7″

SICK THOUGHTS are one of those bands, or projects or whatever, that people constantly talk about in terms of how prolific they are on the release front, but this two-song 45 is the first thing under this name for nigh on eighteen months. I guess we’ve all had distractions one way or another. Both sides are pretty on-point if you’re already down with the essential Drew Owen ethos, and even if not, they’re pretty insta-likeable uptempo punk rock’n’roll with power-pop-gone-metal guitar solos. It’s not polished or anything, but no kind of lo-fi either, especially compared to Drew’s recent album as DD DETH. Kudos for also being bold enough to have a drawing of a bunch of skeletons playing instruments as the sleeve art, despite not being an ageing psychobilly band.

Silicon Heartbeat Earth Static cassette

Beaming in from Kalamazoo, Michigan, SILICON HEARTBEAT (not to be confused with SILICON PRAIRIE) trades in gloomy, fuzz-soaked synth-punk. Suck the fun out of the SPITS or slip a sedative to LOST SOUNDS and you’d have something close to this EP. SILICON HEARTBEAT is competent enough, but the relentless monotone that defines each song can be a hard wave to ride, even on what is essentially a 7″ (are there really only eighteen copies of this tape?). I’m guessing that this is a solo project and, thus, it rates on a sliding scale, but still, there’s little heat here. The digital download of Earth Static closes out with a perfectly fine ANGRY SAMOANS cover that is the aural equivalent of a flatline.

Snooper Fitness EP

C.C.T.V. is dead, long live C.C.T.V.! SNOOPER is a fairly fresh project from Nashville’s Blair Tramel and Connor “SPODEE BOY” Cummins, but in the absence of any context, one would be forgiven for assuming that the duo’s second EP was the product of a certain acronymous NWI combo, rising from the ashes of defunction like a neon slime-covered phoenix in pointy new wave sunglasses. Five pogo-prepped, attention-deficit tracks featuring writhing Hardcore Devo guitar lines, anxiety attack drumming alternately performed by a human and a machine, matter-of-fact femme vocals with a slight robotic edge, and that telltale Tascam warble—when they dial back the BPM count a bit, like on “DOG” (the most C.C.T.V.-patterned offering of the bunch), or the scrabbling and scratching “Pod” (is that a digital cowbell buried behind the breathlessly chanted chorus?), SNOOPER walks around the cracked egg-punk shells that have been littering the DIY floor these last several years and comes up with something that might have more staying power.

Spodee Boy Neon Lights EP

Goodbye Boozy teams up with Nashville’s Conner Cummins (SNOOPER, BODY CAM) once again to bring you another SPODEE BOY 7”. If you’ve been following along thus far, you should already know that this would be good. And I’m not here to dispel you of that belief—it’s excellent! If you’ve not been following along, this is a great place to start! I feel like Conner is really starting to come into his own as a songwriter. The four tracks on this EP are still heavily indebted to the COUNTRY TEASERS, FLIPPER, and STICKMEN WITH RAY GUNS, but it’s starting to feel less like a straight homage and more like something distinctly SPODEE BOY. For my money, “The Plan” is the hit of the record, but the title of the EP seems to suggest otherwise. In any case, just go ahead and listen to the whole thing because there are no duds. Limited to 300 copies, and, surprisingly, there appear to be a few left. Snatch ‘em up, y’all!

Spodee Boy Rides Again… EP

SPODEE BOY is the solo recording project of Nashville’s Connor Cummins, whom you may know from G.U.N. or as one half of the duo SNOOPER. This is his third or fourth release, and it finds him breaking out of his egg punk shell to emerge as a sidewinding high plains drifter. It’s hard not to hear COUNTRY TEASERS in these four tracks, but it also brings to mind DEMON’S CLAWS or BRIMSTONE HOWL. But where those bands might make a fitting soundtrack for a drunken evening at a rowdy road house, Rides Again… would better suit a midnight shamble through Monument Valley after munching a fistful of Klonopin. You can even imagine the unbelievably tinny guitar naturally reverberating off those picturesque buttes. “Dress the Part” is probably the highlight of the EP, but the whole record is great. Such an unexpected and welcome turn for this project. Stellar stuff!

Tee Vee Repairmann Organic Mould EP

More wacky, drum-machine-clad, DEVO-infused garage rock from our friends at Goodbye Boozy, this time featuring Australia’s TEE VEE REPAIRMANN. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it a thousand times: the best in punk is currently being exported from the Land Down Under. The rest of the world should collectively thank Strai’yah for their services to rock’n’roll. First half of this slab retains the traditional egg-punk we’ve all come to know and love, reminiscent of SNOOPER, ALIEN NOSEJOB, and CHERRY CHEEKS. The B-side features two slower ballads with a much stronger bedroom pop vibe. Really rounds out the EP as a whole. Great piece here, highly recommended.

Big Hog / The Resource Network split EP

Indianapolis punks BIG HOG and the RESOURCE NETWORK team up for a noisy split worth your time. BIG HOG starts their side with math-y guitar lines and a bouncing bass sound with LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS-style vocals on top. They would have been at home on Load Records with short capsules of frenzied hardcore skronk, giving me some ARAB ON RADAR vibes with the dial turned more to hardcore than noise rock. There is quite a bit of guitar/bass interplay going on under the snotty hollering with an occasional laser gun noise blast that gives these songs an unpredictable and good weird quality. The RESOURCE NETWORK’S side is not quite as frantic, but it’s definitely interesting, too. These three tunes blend elements of hardcore and new wave with anti-consumerist lyrics that sound like spoken poetry in the verses. “Artificial Flavors” sounds like URANIUM CLUB with the spoken vocals over busy, tinny guitar lines and clean bass. The final track has more of a traditional American hardcore sound like mid-era HÜSKER DÜ with busy bass and guitar work and an anthemic refrain. Check this split out for two cool bands doing their thing confidently.

The Stools Car Port EP

The folks at Goodbye Boozy deliver over and over again. This is raw punk rock that’s got that sound where everything is just a little fuzzy and abrasive. This isn’t going to sound like a compliment, but that’s how it’s meant. It’s just a little difficult to listen to. That it was recorded by ERIK NERVOUS makes sense to me. I don’t know ERIK; in fact I’ve never heard of him. But this has a nervous, almost frantic, energy about it. If this is where punk rock is headed, sign me up for another couple/few decades.

The Primate Five / The Traditional Fools split EP reissue

A reissue of a classic West Coast garage rock record. This split 7″ will get you nostalgic for mid-2000s garage rock. An ultra-lo-fi mix of surf rock and punk, heavily influenced by predecessors like THEE HEADCOATS, the MUMMIES, and the SONICS. The PRIMATE FIVE bring the punk and the TRADITIONAL FOOLS, featuring a young Ty Segall, bring the surf. It’s scuzzy and fuzzy and noisy and totally fucked-up, all in the best ways possible.

Theee Retail Simps Rubble / Jumpin’ Jack Off 7″

Snotty, psychopathic garage punk from Montreal’s THEE RETAIL SIMPS. Good shit, a lot more unruly than I have heard on previous releases from the band. Two tracks that somehow keep all moving parts together, starting with the killer opener “Rumble.” The production is filth of the highest order, and does not veer from the expected sleazy joy that I would expect from the good people at Goodbye Boozy, with “Jumpin’ Jack Off” in honor of Mick’s birthday to finish off the 45.

True Sons of Thunder Age Old Effrontery EP

With a diverse roster of seasoned players from bands like the OBLIVIANS, MANATEEES, RAT TRAPS, and more, TRUE SONS OF THUNDER are a supergroup of divine debauched pedigree, serving up scummy lo-fi indulgence with the weight of heady hardcore. The opening “Shake Rag” is a depraved freight train of STOOGES-style swagger that contains a shout-out to two-thirds of EMERSON, LAKE, AND PALMER. “Plastic Bat Attack” includes a refrain that sounds like the attack itself and provides instructions for creating your very own plastic weapon. “Toob Sock” ends things off somewhat abruptly with an urgent cadence that would not be out of place on a HOMOSTUPIDS record. These guys stir up quite a din, check out their Total Punk LP for further proof.

Wayne Pain & the Shit Stains The Zoo EP

You know what you’re getting into here. This EP sounds like trash. Glorious, nasty trash. If the MEATMEN were more rock‘n’roll and put a swing into the beat, you might get something like this. It’s four tracks of blissfully blown-out and ugly garage punk presented with love and care from the always on-point Goodbye Boozy label. It’s noisy as fuck, but doesn’t grate the ear (captures the lo-fi sound without throwing production entirely in the bin). The songs are anarchic, blindingly fast, and have that tight guitar pop structure that makes a crowd go crazy. So, to reiterate, with a band like this you know what you’re getting into—and it kicks ass.

Whippets Kick EP

Did anyone else expect SNAPCASE’s “Caboose” to start playing after the opening drum lick on this EP? For your sake, I hope not! Anyway, we’ve got a new 7” from Goodbye Boozy, this time it’s the debut vinyl release from the Madison, WI-based act WHIPPETS. The project began as a recording outlet for Bobby Hussy (he seems to have started developing ideas for it as far back as 2013), but he’s since fleshed things out into a full band by adding frequent collaborator Tyler Spatz (the HUSSY, CAVE CURSE) on bass and Riley Heninger on drums. Broadly speaking, I guess the band plays post-punk, but from track to track the amount of “punk” or “post-” you get will vary. Three of the four tracks on this EP tread a lot of the same ground JAY REATARD laid with Blood Visions—tight, dynamic, start/stop songs that are as indebted to garage punk as they are gothic rock or any of its derivations—whereas “Cure” is more mechanical post-punk in the vein of A FRAMES. To top it all off, Bobby’s doing his best imitation of early-BIRTHDAY PARTY Nick Cave—to the point of caricature, though, so it’s more in TV GHOST territory. I don’t think any of these songs have quite as much character as ones put out by the aforementioned acts, but they’re definitely not bad. You should give it a spin!

Paranoise / X-Acto split EP

Split 7” from two synth-addled punk collectives. X-ACTO layers lo-fi insect synths over garage hardcore with goofy lyrics. “Smell Like Beef” sounds like a malfunctioning Speak & Spell holding its own with the punks. The chorus is “What’s that smell? I smell like beef.” Kinda gross. During the bridge on “Blastbeats,” the buzzing electronics and drums evoke the LOCUST, but not quite as heavy. For fans of RESEARCH REACTOR CORPORATION. PARANOISE’s side is, and I don’t particularly like this word, wackier. One of the first records I ever bought was a MAN OR ASTRO-MAN? 7”, and when I got it home, I played it at the wrong speed and sat there like, “What the fuck is this? It sounds like cartoons.” PARANOISE gives me the same feeling, like everything is sped up and just a little off. What I do like is the chromatic riffing they do and the relentless downbeat drumming on “Sixth Kind.” Try as hard as they might to be eggy dorks, it’s a hardcore ripper. Recommended if you thought the CONEHEADS played it a little too seriously.

Satanic Togas / Zoids split EP

SATANIC TOGAS charge through this split with all the grit, dirt, and swag. The Sydney three-piece has the sound and feel of dusty, bluesy garage, all while being screamed through a telephone. I get PUSSY GALORE by way of Detroit. Great stuff from what I would expect of a Goodbye Boozy band, both songs carry the weight in under three minutes of ripping.   ZOIDS are a tough one to nail down, I can’t find any info on them for the life of me. On the split, they start where SATANIC TOGAS left off, but without any solid footing. There is nothing in their two songs that sync up, and at times I feel like I am listening through the walls of two different bands’ rehearsals. Rough.