For review and radio play consideration:
Please send vinyl (preferred), CD, or cassette releases to MRR, PO Box 3852, Oakland, CA 94609, USA. Maximum Rocknroll wants to review everything that comes out in the world of underground punk rock, hardcore, garage, post-punk, thrash, etc.—no major labels or labels exclusively distributed by major-owned distributors, no reviews of test pressings or promo CDs without final artwork. Please include contact information and let us know where your band is from!
Sludgy pop hooks mastered up so lo-fi the drums just fuzz and blend into one long thunderous white sound. There’s early JAWBREAKER-esque vocals where you can only make out every third or fourth word, but you can figure out that they’re talking about something like what you wanted to hear. Four songs on black vinyl with a hand stamped center label and xeroxed sleeve in a poly bag—a little authentic DIY hope in an otherwise overproduced landscape.
GERM HOUSE is a jangly, poppy indie rock band out of Rhode Island. This is a US edition of their cassette with the addition of seven compilation tracks. The vocal style is laid-back yet defiant. The keyboard pops in at just the right moment. “Nothing is Like They Wanted” is my favorite track. It’s a GO-BETWEENS-style rocker with politically aware lyrics. It’s a sing-along anthem.
A real-deal garage banger taking me back to my Rip Off Records-laden glory days, this self-titled long-player from Berlin’s the IN-FUZZED is not only some of the best garage rock I’ve heard in a while, it’s some of the best I’ve ever heard. With a killer, collage-like spread of great songs that all feel authentic, this is a real anomaly for this particular strain of throwback rock’n’roll. Rather than riding a single fuzzy groove-style all the way to hell, or taking on a campy retro pose like many attempts at garage over the last couple of decades, the IN-FUZZED seem to pop around and play in the best bits of all aspects of the genre. And it sounds like they’re really having a blast doing it, whether they’re freaking out a bit and reminding me of Dutch ’90s legends the STIPJES on “Lost Time Rock N’ Roll,” playing ’60s punk à la the MAKERS on “Like Nitroglycerine,” rolling like the BEACH BOYS comin’ down a dirty chimney on the charming “Xmas Night,” or even dabbling in psychedelia a little bit on “Wall.” Playing very much like a compilation of fresh new garage groups instead of the effort of a single band, this is truly an amazing record. I wasn’t expecting this in 2021, but fuck yes, I’ll take it.
Seventeen songs here, with the longest clocking in at 1:29. Short, fast, hardcore songs that strangely don’t use distortion on the guitars. I don’t particularly know how I feel about this. The songs are good, but the lack of distortion is off-putting to say the least. I wanna like this, and I think I do, but the sound of the guitar is fucking with my brain. Like it’s seriously giving me a borderline panic attack. Hahaha.
To boil it down, this is a collection of works from a one-man experimental punk project from Hokkaido, Japan, specifically a once-a-month tape series that was released from May 1993 to February 1994. Follow the Bandcamp link to the Bitter Lake site for all of the historical details and proper context for KYOUFU SHINBUN. There is a lot to take in here, 47 tracks in total, but the triple-LP format allows me to enjoy it in six reasonably-sized portions. I’ve been doing this randomly over the past few weeks, one side at a time, and I find it to be both enjoyable and consistent. It’s fairly 50/50 split between aggressive, eccentric punk and uncomfortable experimental music, drum machine-driven, with a good balance of distorted guitars and electronics. The songwriting seems intentional, more so than improvisational, even at its weirdest. One moment you might be swirling in a killer clown circus tent breakbeat nightmare, and then suddenly launched into a punky ADK-esque track. This release comes served up in a thick yellow box. Each disc is housed in a black dust sleeve, and then in a sturdy printed inner sleeve featuring original disturbing drawings and track info. There’s also a booklet consolidating all original art and bits of layout, as well as a couple photos and flyers. Stunning package goes a long way getting me engaged with something I previously knew nothing about, a thing that Bitter Lake knows how to get just right. Worth the price tag, which really isn’t all that high considering the high quality and massive content.
It’s an old story: UK/Irish expats in Australia form a first-wave punk group, then up sticks to London in search of a career. Despite John Peel airplay and an alternative chart hit single in “Animal World,” success never really came knocking for the LAST WORDS, but they did manage to record an anomaly of an album with an early credit for legendary producer Adrian Sherwood. That album makes up the bulk of the tracks here, bookended by the more urgent, snarling tracks from the early singles. Rough-hewn, catchy (but unremarkable) punk with STIFF LITTLE FINGERS-meets-CLASH melodies gets an experimental tape loop treatment that at least makes it memorable, not least on the ahead-of-its-time closing track, a ferocious, psychedelic dub-punk deconstruction of JEFFERSON AIRPLANE’s “White Rabbit.” Worth checking out for sure.
Grunge-infused feminist punk by way of Paris, France, with definite notes of BIKINI KILL, SLEATER-KINNEY, and similar bands of the American Northwest riot grrrl scene. It’s tough to paint this group with too broad a brush genre-wise; there are moments on this record that recall late ’70s punk and ’80s new wave, too. Moods range from playful to ferocious to introspective. At a solid fourteen songs, it’s clear this band has a lot to communicate with this record, and I think they succeed in that.
Hyperdrive fastcore out of Leeds, UK, drawing from the millennial thrash wave and killing it for sure! Kind of like WHAT HAPPENS NEXT meets FUCK ON THE BEACH, or in other words fucking fast as shit! This isn’t some slopped out muck-violence either (no diss on muck-violence). This has those super-tight start/stops, interesting riffs for days, and sonic blast drums that will have your circle pits breaking the sound barrier. If you’re a totally thrashed blast freak, you’ve got to hear this one!
Debut LP from this Brooklyn-via-Oakland art/dance-punk three-piece. This sounds like what you might get were you to raise a few DEVO-core mutants on What Makes a Man Start Fires-era MINUTEMEN and later PARQUET COURTS. It works best when they sound more like the former, less like the latter, and resist their basest mutant urges to showcase how “weird” they can get. The brand of half-hearted experimentation that they’re trying out here just sounds pretentious and annoying when paired with the otherwise straightforward punk funk or NYC-style dance-punk that they’re playing. Luckily, most of these sixteen tracks are sub-two minutes, so the more irritating songs are at least over pretty quickly. Not for the wacky-averse, but interesting enough to be worth a listen.
Before the third wave of the great commodification, punk was always a safe haven for weirdos. Experimental and eclectic to the point of being true only to self. A place equally for anger, angst, and creativity. Thinking DEVO, TALKING HEADS, SPARKS. Following in that mind line come QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT. More theater kids, less leather. This full-length is filled with snotty, swampy anthems that are humorously political, socially scathing, and most certainly would fill a dance floor live. Disco beats, circus organs, homemade instruments, dueling majorette vocals, plus a talk box master. It’s like if John Waters managed the early B-52’S.
Folks, meet your next favorite Midwest indie/power pop powerhouse: REXXX. Their Milwaukee roots reach even deeper than these kids might realize—when I dig into these grooves, I feel the ghosts of TEMPER TEMPER, CALL ME LIGHTNING, WOLFBITE, and drunken fried pickles at the Palomino between sets at Cactus Club. There’s just enough glam to push Pure Pleasure II dangerously close to cheese, but if the burning addictive power of “Dead to Me” doesn’t win you over….you might be beyond help. It’s all here: ’90s indie/basement sing-alongs (“Hit N Run,” “Fuccboi”), classic power pop (“Can’t Help It”), bare-bones Rust Belt punk hooks (“Modern Demon”), and I can even give the sultry ballad (“4 Miles From Home”) a pass because the rest of the second side is so damn good. The band self released this on a solid gold cassette last year, but a candy-red slab of wax spinning hits at 45rpm could be exactly what 2021 needs.
SEIZED UP is a “supergroup” featuring members of BL’AST!, GOOD RIDDANCE, the NERVE AGENTS, and ALL YOU CAN EAT, and goddamn if they haven’t made a hell of a record. Pissed-off, at times very bass-driven, at other times just fast hardcore blasts, and while at times it’d be easy to compare this to BL’AST! especially due to vocalist Clifford Dinsmore, this is a much more straightforward hardcore record than most of the previously mentioned band’s body of work. I highly recommend hunting down a copy of this album and playing it as loud as possible, preferably while skating and/or driving.
On this, their debut LP, SENSUAL WORLD has created a unique flavor of mid-tempo, doomy post-punk and soulful, melodic vocals à la mid-era GOSSIP or KING WOMAN. It is a sludgy trek through songs loaded with emotional intensity, like someone reading aloud to you from their journal. This is one of those records that creates its own environment in the listener’s mind. If you’re down for the journey, look these folks up.
It’s interesting to see a resurgence of bands doing humor which takes me back to my campus radio days of hearing KING MISSILE and the DEAD MILKMEN. TODD BRIEFLY, however, sounds nothing like those bands, but more closely resembles the COOL GREENHOUSE in their drum machine format. And it works! References a-plenty familiar to any modern rock weirdo: Fender Jaguars, banal chores, making fun of rich people, and hypochondria. It’s got that jerky DEVO-inflected mix of guitar and synth, and matched with some wit and songwriting skills to back it up.
WOOD CHICKENS are a high-energy, punky rockabilly band from Wisconsin. This live cassette captures them in a full-swing rocking state. They sound like they are having a really good time. There are some fun song titles like “Return of Skunk Ape,” “We Skate in Boots,” and “Emilio Estevez,” too.
A quick peek before I pressed play and I noticed tracks from LETTUCE VULTURES and FOSSIL FUEL so….well, I’m guessing this sixteen-band comp is gonna be a wild ride. I wasn’t wrong. Non-music, outsider dub, improvisational nonsense, outsider funk, damaged Americana, lo-fi psych…if it’s weird then it fits. “Sixteen musings on the unknown,” according to the cover. Pretty much sums it up. PEPPERMINT TEABAG, NIKOLAS KUNZ, TOXIC PILGRIMS, STILL LOOKING FOR COSMO, PIMP OF PERVERSION, and so much more. No contact information though, so the mystery is even deeper for you, dear reader.
A somewhat new project from punk-blues band BASSHOLES’ frontman Don Howland, A BURNING BUS released a few singles earlier in the decade but have just now got around to releasing their debut full-length. This LP is most definitely the noisiest and most lo-fi release in Howland’s discography. Really gritty and abrasive blues guitars are pushed even further by a tight bass and drum duo. Reminiscent of bands like the GORIES or THEE HEADCOATS, possibly even early WHITE STRIPES and BLACK KEYS. Released on the legendary In the Red Records, this is a record worth your time if you like your garage rock wild and loose.
Two of the hardest contemporary Québécois Oi! bands join forces for this split LP. Bringing together on wax both of their respective demo tapes and sprinkling them with a bit of studio remastering magique to give them a bit of brawn. BÉTON ARMÉ’s side of the split is in keeping with the fine tradition of francophone Oi! (sans saxophone), replete with buzzsaw guitars that if you told me had been transported directly from 1985, I’d believe you. ULTRA RAZZIA takes a slightly rougher, more punk-tinged approach, in keeping with more modern offerings like COUPE GORGE or TRAITRE. It also includes a joyous French-language cover of BLITZ’s “Razors in the Night,” which is almost worth the cost alone.
Fucking alright, yeah! Your favorite yobbos from various UK bands unite for the best kind of good-time, feel-good classic Oi! You know…REJECTS, ABRASIVE WHEELS, 4 SKINS…ANDREW W.K.(?). Every song is the dog’s bollocks, even the cover of the original CRIMINAL DAMAGE’s “Criminal Crew.” Brilliant! It’s on Beach Impediment so, what the fuck, don’t be a wanker. I’m out of cliche British colloquialisms. Just buy it already.
As you might guess, not a lot of information is available for a band called DATA UNKNOWN. This is some pretty wild stuff, tho. Indianapolis, IN-based, lo-fi drum-machine-driven weirdo punk/new wave/noise/synth kookiness, and it all somehow works really well together. Ten tracks, all sounding wildly different from one another. Not sure if the band is suggesting that they’ve “got it made in the shade like Ra,” the benevolent Egyptian god of the son, or “Like Ra,” the corrupt, powerful Goa’uld bent on destruction and world domination from the other side of the Stargate, but either way I am all in to take that journey and find out which.
UK, 1982, what a special time for punk! Similar to many contemporary acts, DISORDER was traveling uncharted territories within punk. The Perdition EP single-handedly created a template for many of the noisier punk bands to come. Tracks like “Life”, that appears in the now legendary UK punk documentary UK/DK from 1983, became anthems in their own right, and “Remembrance Day” showed that DISORDER was also able to handle the more dark post-punk sound. This fine reissue by Puke n Vomit of the legendary EP includes a 24″x24″ poster. Heavily distorted and more metallic, this EP is a must have for any fan of the UK82 stuff.
Solid EP from this group of Melbourne nerds. This four-song EP has two distinct sounds: two songs sound like DEVO-inspired new wave pop hits, and two sound like math-y post-punk jams. It doesn’t seem like they would fit together, but they do. “Super Speedy Zippy Whipper” has buzzing synths, call-and-response vocals, and slightly wacky lyrics that combine into a fun, breezy jammer. Third track “Stitch Up” has a similar energy with keyboard lines and background “la-la-la-las.” The other two songs sound like FUGAZI with David Byrne doing vocals. “Collapse” has some slightly atonal guitar work with a bobbing bass line, while “Temperature Talk” has intertwining guitars dueling skewered arpeggios. Combine these elements with the aforementioned vocal style, and you get an odd mix. Synth-laden egg-punk with minor key noodling seems like a terrible combination, like ketchup and gravy, but it sounds good here. The band has the songwriting and personality to pull it off. They sound like PARQUET COURTS in parts, but they are unique enough to stand on their own. Worth checking out!
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING, one of the best and most celebrated Australian bands of the ’00s, popped into the last few weeks of 2019 to drop a new LP with little fanfare, like they hadn’t taken most of the decade off. And while a lot changed in the interim between their last full-length, 2010’s Rush to Relax, All in Good Time finds the band sounding largely the same. With a couple of minor tweaks to their character settings—they’ve bumped up the NEU! slider a few notches and the PAGANS slider down a few (but left the TROGGS slider untouched)—they’ve turned in a gentler, more thoughtful album, one that will likely appeal to the tired ears of the fanbase that is now nine rough-ass years older. There’s nothing on here as manic as “Anxiety,” as explosive as “Sunday’s Coming,” or as revelatory as “Pitch a Tent,” but it’s still a treat to hear such an inimitable band play through a set of solidly crafted songs. They may not have rushed to get here, but this is the most relaxed the band has sounded—it suits them well. Now, let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another nine years for the next album!
A “vintage” collection of thirteen originals, clocking in at under 30 minutes (of course), straight out of the rock’nroll (hall of fame) garage. Not so much a return to the (CHUCK BERRY) source, more a stripped-down but perfectly executed collection of bubblegum surf songs that would make the RAMONES rock in their graves. Really rather good. Not least the sharp guitar work and tight vocal harmonies.
Intense and properly humourless power trio delivering ripping post-punk with a big sound. The upfront vocals make everything sound like an emergency and there’s a lot of inventive interplay between vocals and instruments. The opening tune “Arterial Movements” sets the parameters: high energy, distinct bass, and guitar that at times pierces, at other times drones, and other times expands into a sick echo. GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS are working in dangerous territory for a UK band owing a debt to GANG OF FOUR. So much of that sound was run into the ground in the Bush-era by bands like the RAPTURE and the ROGERS SISTERS. This reviewer is pleased to report that GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS do not fall into any such sonic cliches. I like how the slow grind of “Human Frailty” resolves into the lopsided, atonal sonic nightmare. They sound like they would be killer live.
Bands that use D-beat and more metallic riffs get labelled as “crust” but maintain a clean sound. Not in this case. Philly punks INSTINCT? drop a massive crust punk bomb with Pray to Death. This is true crust punk with a barrage of sound coming through with every song and a sense of impending doom. Bands like DOOM and E.N.T. come to mind, so you get transported to the UK in the late ’80s. Another great release from Bunker Punks.
Cure your lockdown bummer with some Revolution Summer…JADE DUST is from Santa Barbara, but is clearly attempting to channel a strain of emotional sounds born a continent away and over thirty years ago. While heavily indebted to EMBRACE, IGNITION, et al, as well as West Coast proponents like FUEL, the songs have enough cathartic energy and passionate desperation to stand on their own. The demo itself has a rawness that actually enhances the experience: If you’re anything like me, when you heard music like this for the first time, it was likely via a scuzzy home-taped cassette on a busted Walkman.
Thirteen tracks of light speed Scandi-blast crammed onto one slick-looking piece of white wax. These Swedes seem laser-focused on MOB 47-style trash, but there’s a primitive Italian hardcore vibe that keeps derailing them in the best possible way. The recording varies (slightly) throughout, which puts everything just a touch on edge, but when the bass rumbles into the intro of “Lipa På TV,” I don’t give a shit about anything except the incoming assault. The record looks incredible as well—hi-gloss white sleeve and insert plastered with illustrations that I can only describe as “refined adult crust.” I deserve ridicule for writing that, KRIMTÄNK deserves accolades for writing Ditt Fel.
If you ask me, Greg Ashley is a goddamn genius. This motherfucker has written, engineered, played on, pissed on, passed out on, or thought about a theremin line for, well, name it—I’ll figure out how it connects to our boy Greg. Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-all, Ashley will make it better, one way or the other. Despite all this, his pre-GRIS GRIS group, the MIRRORS, still gets short shrift. Both of their early 2000s albums are classics, so you bet I was psyched to hear this lost puppy. And it doesn’t disappoint. While not quite scaling the heights as those millennium-era killers, The Lost 3rd Album is more than worth it for fans. Laying just slightly off the garage rock bombast of that earlier work, the nine cuts here are an obvious precedent for the GRIS GRIS and their seductive, hypnotic sway. Songs like “Patient Flowers Electric” and “Blush Sunshine” are the real Paisley Underground. But you’ve still got full-throated blare like “Gracie’s Pink Pussy Cat” and “Paranoia Blues,” so maybe rip some holes in your thrift store polyester. No one can channel the VELVETS, Roky, Townes VZ, and DREAM SYNDICATE like the Gash. This is dirty psychedelia for drugged-up romantic poets.
Mark my words, the MAX NORDILE comprehensive box set that is gonna drop in like 2036 is going to blow people’s minds, and you will be able to tell your kids that you were there on the ground floor. No sonic experimentation seems to be off limits, and the near constant output is humbling. Little Kicks is an improvisational adventure taking advantage of wind instruments (mainly but maybe not exclusively saxophone), sporadic percussion, and a damaged guitar with mumbled background vocal missives. No rules…the “noise not music” set needs to start focusing this direction, because if you inject this shit into some CONFUSE-obsessed motherfuckers, I think my life will melt in the best way imaginable.
This is one of those recordings that transports you to the band’s place of origin. You can feel the tension that is living in Mexico City and all its unrest. Unsettling and dark as night, OJO POR OJO delivers a fist full of hate in the form of hardcore punk that sometimes resembles Pain of Mind-era NEUROSIS, when they still played straightforward hardcore, and Italian powerhouse NERORGASMO. Guitarist/singer Yecatl Peña’s previous band INSERVIBLES also serves as a blueprint for this sound that they make. Paroxismo is the two-track follow-up to their 2018 debut LP on La Vida Es Un Mus, and it was recorded by none other than Steve Albini. Shame that it isn’t longer!
Without question my favorite tape I was sent this month for review. Wow. PLEXI is relentless hardcore punk. Fast and pissed, heavy pit-worthy breakdowns, raspy/strained vocals that sound instantly familiar without feeling like they’re ripping something off. The intensity and forceful delivery of the vocals very much remind me of how Barb used to sing in I OBJECT. Eleven songs of unapologetically ripping hardcore punk. With no contact info and seemingly no internet presence, I am not sure how to suggest you track down a copy of this, but do yourself a favor and try.
Part Messthetics-informed outsider post-punk, part no-fi DIY hometaper pop, as performed entirely by one Canadian named Brandon Saucier. Happy Happy & Hardcore Pop collects the material from two earlier self-released cassettes and clocks in at a sprawling 26 tracks, of which only three are over two minutes long (and just barely at that)—an all-new PRINT HEAD tape actually popped up like a week or two after this one came out, and Saucier definitely seems like someone forever working at a Jad Fair/Mark E. Smith-like clip when it comes to songwriting (possible FALL reference in the project name is telling?). Opener “Repeat” rides a killer kinetic rhythm with a loping bass line and faux-motorik beat, then adds some heavy existential anxiety from detached vocals intoning lines like “What will you be thinking / While you die?” over barbed guitar clang and clattering percussion. And the hits keep coming: the blown-out, blink-and-you-missed-it “All is Over” recalls Siltbreeze-era TIMES NEW VIKING with some off-kilter hooks and junky keyboard, there’s a nod to the FIRE ENGINES on the dirty basement disco-punk instrumental “Instrumental,” “Went Out Last Night” pulls off some NWI-by-way-of-Hardcore Devo tricks…and that’s barely scratching the surface; veritable kitchen-sink weirdo punk to the max here.
Legendary Brazilian punk band RATOS DE PORÃO achieved this status with the classic album Crucificados Pelo Sistema. This album had unmatched ferocity and remains as one of the most important records in Brazilian music, not just punk. After a few albums they began to lean on a more crossover-influenced style, and it was on Carniceria Tropical where they achieved the perfect balance, the true RxDxPx sound. It’s thrashy, it’s punk, it has speed, it has melody, and most of all it is catchy as fuck. Songs like “Crocodila” or “Vá Se Virar” are now classic RxDxPx songs. Producer Billy Anderson was able to bring the best out of this punk outfit with a brilliant balance of crusty yet audible metallic sound. This reissue contains remastered tracks, an unreleased track, restyled sleeve, insert with lyrics and exclusive photos. Get this one or “vão se foder“!
Excellent combination of pure depressive power and the ability to unleash when necessary. MISERY and DEVIATED INSTINCT comparisons are easy, but they are also warranted here—the responsible personnel have been in the game for years, and it shows. Four doses of unassailable doom-laden crust, peaking with “The Path” that starts the second side with instantly familiar dark melodies, helping the listener realize that this trio bows to the same sonic idols that have brought more “recognized” bands something like underground “success”—somehow it hits just a little harder when you see a band churning it out in relative isolation. Even if you just casually dabble in the world of epic crust, ROÄC will straight up level you.
Oh hell yeah, this authentic lo-fi synth eeriness from Ohio’s the SERFS is right up my alley. The whole thing just pops the second you put it on. The synth does a great job of making an otherwise straightforward song just a little off-kilter and uneasy. The first two tracks are direct post-punk ragers, but it’s “Debt World” on the flip that really wins me over. The arpeggiated synth and pulsing bass evokes KRAFTWERK’s Radio-Activity LP or the primitive industrial of early SKINNY PUPPY. A solid EP worthy of its Ohio punk pedigree. The snappy risographed cover is a bonus.
This is kinda the solo project of Wynn Skism, the bass player for the KRAYS and other New York bands. It has that intimate feel of a bedroom punk project even though, I believe, it’s a full band. There’s personal introspective soliloquies like “Knocked Down With a 40,” political songs about chemical warfare, the token “kill Nazis” number, and even a two-part serial killer rock opera. The guitar is an excellent buzzsaw tone and the vocals are shouted and enunciated reminding me of LIMECELL. Good effort for one who’s been around the block a few twenty times.
Super harsh, blasting hardcore from Nashville that brings in elements of powerviolence, psych, and a little metal. First track “Local” is a good indicator of things to come, with start/stop rhythms, blastbeats, and mini math-y breakdowns. The raw, shredded vocals are immediately arresting and have to leave the singer looking for a cough drop after shows. “Ally” is a good mix of everything THIRDFACE does well, with fast blasting, creepy-crawl breakdowns with sinister feedback, those awesome filthy vocals, and a noisy outro. It rules. They remind me of DESPISE YOU in parts because of how fucking thick and nasty everything is, but they are not afraid to get weird and stretch out with some spacy psych feedback jams like “Interlude.” Sounding like GASP, these moments are a perfect mix of heavy and experimental. We get some great thrash riffing on “Villains!” and “No Hope” that give glimpses of raw hardcore meets crossover for a few seconds at a time. Great release and highly recommended!
One of my favorite things, when an unknown label does a compilation/mixtape showcasing what their label is all about. Wet Cassettes seem to have about twenty releases under their belt, and this comp has twenty tracks. To describe it the way they intended: “The Comp Vol. 1 features twenty previously unreleased songs from twenty Wet Cassettes artists of the past, present, future, and well, some that were just formed for this compilation.” This New Jersey-based label seems to dabble in a number of different genres, going from synth-punk to black metal to harsh noise to straight up grindcore. Personally, my favorite on the cassette is the Denmark synth-punk duo OK SATÁN whose cassette I also reviewed this month, or ARACHNID SALAD with their lo-fi cyberpunk track. There is a little too much emphasis on the pots’n’pans music for my personal taste (lo-fi grindcore, noise stuff, etc.), but all in all, this is a very cool introduction to a label I was previously unaware of.
Mexican communist antifascist street punks…activate! Eight doses of mid-paced, tough-as-nails Oi! from Monterrey that implore the listener to think, to read, to learn. The music is no-frills, full of starter hooks, and it often lumbers more than it rages—allowing space for the lyrics to sink in so you can sing every chorus with them with a clenched fist. And it’s easy to get on the side of a chorus that chants “300 Nazis died…I forgive none.”
The first full-length (comprised of demos recorded just before the pandemic—hence the title, get it!?) from this girl group/garage band from the Twin Cities. The main players have been around for decades, and it shows in the easy confidence of these rockin’ originals (and some tasty nuggets covered). Power pop straight out of the garage (albeit must be a well heated one in those environs), replete with riffs, harmonies, and boppin’ beats a-plenty.
Hailing from Sapporo, Japan, CARTHIEFSCHOOL delivers a unique blend of jazz, math rock, and screaming post-hardcore on their debut LP. The band’s three members immediately sound like technically adept musicians on the first track, with syncopated hi-hat rhythms and silky smooth bass lines. Vocalist/guitarist Tomoya alternates between a spoken vocal delivery style and a throat-shredding raw holler, sometimes changing back and forth on a dime. Their approach to music reminds me some of RUINS, in that jazz instrumentation and musical vocabulary is used to explore more traditionally aggressive genres. However, where that band creates cacophonous prog-noise, CARTHIEFSCHOOL mainly adheres to post-hardcore with occasional forays into noodly experimental territory. I prefer when the band goes full-tilt aggro, such as on opening track “蜜柑 (Mikan)” and “油 (Abura).” The shift from jazz fusion to raging hardcore is awesome. My only critique is that these moments are not incredibly plentiful. Many of the tracks stay in the jazz-rock lane, although they are definitely interesting in their own right. There is a playful musicality to many of these songs, like on “House” when the band plays through what is called in classical music circles, “the Tetris theme song.” The musicianship and willingness to experiment is admirable and worth checking out if you like a little jazz with your punk.
For those who think that deathrock has been on the down-low lately, here is the living (or undead?!?) proof in the form of Curb Your Anarchy from the Nuke York nightwalkers CHILDREN WITH DOG FEET. Equal parts goth and punk, this debut features four nightmarish tracks of spooky deathrock with a decadent punkier edge, creating a frenzy of RUDIMENTARY PENI-infused CHRISTIAN DEATH. Released by Toxic State, a label that always has its finger on the pulse of what is new in punk, and featuring members of ANASAZI, BLU ANXXIETY, and EXTENDED HELL. What could go wrong with this mix? This is for the night children, ghouls and fiends.
Heavy, anthemic melodic punk rock. CHUNX sound fine-tuned and ready for action; file alongside acts like PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS or a slightly more metallic WESTERN ADDICTION, but with gruffer vocals and a youthful (youth-filled?) approach to the genre.
This synth-pop supergroup features Alice Bag, Allison Wolfe, and Seth Bogart, three seasoned musicmakers collaborating to create pared-down, catchy pop anthems that rarely pass the two-minute mark, and will be cycling through your head for days to come. Fans of BRATMOBILE and GRAVY TRAIN!!!! will likely dig CLIQUEY BITCHES—the fingerprints of Seth and Allison are all over this thing, with the genius addition of Alice Bag on keys and backing vox. It’s the soundtrack to a spiked punch dance party, delivering inclusive messages, melodic group vocals, and a snare hit that doesn’t quit.
It seems like whenever I discover a new punk record that’s exciting and innovative it happens to come from Philadelphia. This record is no exception. Extremely tight and punchy riffs and fast off-kilter grooves make this LP a totally fun way to spend 25 minutes. Mastered by Mikey Young of TOTAL CONTROL, you can hear the influence of Young’s jaded style of synth punk around the record. The vocals are sarcastic, almost taunting the listener. Spitting attitude, this is a release you don’t want to miss!
Echoey and cavernous hardcore from this Philly-based band. Vile Ebb is their debut LP for Denver’s Convulse Records, after 2020’s The Cosmic Leash demo. DRILL SERGEANT walks a line between vicious ’80s hardcore and just full powerviolence assault. The songs are short, dynamic, and almost dramatic in their take-no-prisoners approach. Hard to have a favorite song; all the songs come in a line of successive brutal blows to the head, giving you a really satisfying punchdrunk feeling. But I’ll give it a try. I really like “Real Evil,” which is part INFEST, part NEGATIVE APPROACH, and the closer song “Sense of Community,” with its sonic barbaric battle against your senses.
Holy unruliness. DROPDEAD sounds more ferocious than ever on this remastered reissue of their 1993 self-titled release. Bob Otis’s vocals are ripping through the speakers, the bass is a gruesome gritty meld of bounce and rhythm. The drums are absolutely pulverizing and the cymbals glimmer. I had a cassette of this around 1996 and I used to blast it driving around New Haven, around the first time I saw DROPDEAD at The Tune Inn, and their sincerity and raw power completely floored me. No mercy for my ears, only for all animals. It brings back very fond memories hearing this again. Compared only at the time to locals BOILING MAN, I found DROPDEAD so overwhelmingly passionate when I first heard them. Messages you could not ignore or not admit were real. If “Unjustified Murder” into “The Circle Complete” to “Clone” doesn’t move you to live responsibly, and you claim to exist in a scene that cares, I don’t know what will. Thirty-four tracks of ruthless, grinding hardcore assault. If you never had this, this is the version you need right now, for a time right now. Remastered by Brad Boatright, this is a total pummel-fest that has never sounded so full and heavy while retaining the unmistakable DROPDEAD savagery and intensity, if that is even possible.
This is my kind of weirdo rock. The two songs on this 7″ are in different styles. The A-side “Gratoit Crawl” is a mad, drug-induced sounding jam. It’s all over the place, noisy and lo-fi. I want to just play it again and again. The B-side “50’s House Blues” is a more straightforward bluesy garage rocker. It repeatedly mentions potato vodka which makes me giggle and also has the great line “I’m as useless as can be.” CHRISTOPHER ALAN DURHAM is from outside of Detroit and is formerly of ROACHCLIP and the BIBS. Cool stuff.
In case you can’t tell from the band name, these guys are pissed! With members like Moe Pain and Ben Worse(!), you get a little warning of the intense Massachusetts modern floorpunching hardcore/grind meld pummeling you are about to receive. Not to be confused with the Ojai powerviolence grind combo of the same name, this band treads along similar waters with more of an East Coast DISASSOCIATE kinda vibe. There’s lots of shocking sound bites as they gun more for the offensive side of grind, such as on masterworks like “Fart Out My Dickhole.” They definitely have a sense of humor and I can’t really picture any of them being under 250 pounds, but these four EPs fly by in no time. I’m not really left wanting more, just empty and vacant and that’s not the worst thing.
