Reviews

MRR #505 • June 2025

Aufruhr Zur Liebe 3 x 3 = Nein LP

According to the label’s bio—which is the source of everything I know about this release— AUFRUHR ZUR LIEBE was only active from 1983 to 1986 in East Germany, and none of these recordings had been issued on vinyl or CD before. So, it’d be fair to say that listening to 3 x 3 = Nein feels like opening up a time capsule from an ancient, isolated civilization. Upon hearing the hypnotizing, shamanistic atmosphere of the first two tracks, I was ready to buckle up for an hour of dissociating in minimal synth soundscapes. But all of a sudden, it threw me a solid curveball with a shift to a more guitar-heavy post-punk sound. Then another with abrasive, cathartic no wave with the help of some saxophones, then another with more conventional rock’n’roll…but I don’t think the lack of coherence in sound is a big deal, considering the fact that the label stayed true to the original track lists on this compilation album. If anything, it’s a very unique and intimate experience to listen to a band lost in time, experimenting to find its voice in a different era, in a different place.

Basic Shapes Low Energy LP

What a bait and switch. This album kicks off with a noise rock groove, setting my expectations for something that mines the ’90s for dark, syrupy riffs, before yanking away the rug and showcasing a pretty snappy hook-laden grip of garage punk cuts. This hits nicely on the ear, keeping it tight where it counts and then blooming riffs into big hooks with plenty of abandon. The French act veers into some nice and pointy post-punk structures à la GANG OF FOUR, but always drives it back to a melodic soaring spirit. In some ways, this record reminds me of the heyday of the HIVES, but with a DIY heart beating in its chest. I’m all for that, and would be pogoing my dumb ass off at one of their shows.

Blanket of M Finger Forest CD

Solid garage rock out of East Texas; this is what I would consider true-to-heart RAMONES-core. It doesn’t come off as gimmicky nor sticky-sweet the way other players of the genre are wont to be. Instead this is some raw, downstroking, honest-to-God rock’n’roll. For a trio, this band sounds huge. Your standard power chord affair, it’s the vocals that really do it for me—heavily layered, a little off-key, but nonetheless catchy. My only complaint is that this slab is over too soon! No joke. I was disappointed when I hit the end, as I was promptly returned to our bleak reality.

Columba Triste Columba Triste 12″

Tastefully-played French Oi! from Lille’s COLUMBA TRISTE. While there are countless bands currently playing this style, I’ll always be a sucker for melodic and moody Oi!, and COLUMBA TRISTE does it well. They sound very smooth and refined, with vocals that remind me of contemporaries SYNDROME 81. There aren’t really any misses on this 12”, but the final track “Dans La Vase” stands out. Good stuff.

Cyanides Black Bricks EP

Debut EP out of St. Louis, giving us a grip of out-of-this-world, synth-garage-psych-rock multi-hyphenated tunes that do a great job of establishing who they are and what they’re here to do. The combination of sounds here is the kind of thing that would be soundtracking Frankie’s Tiki Room in Vegas—by that I mean a genuinely cool-without-trying oasis that provides respite from an otherwise crushing nightmare (in this case, the strip). Digression aside, these four songs are for fans of DEVO, RESEARCH REACTOR CORP, maybe even ROTARY CLUB, or anyone who likes a coating of sci-fi in their garage tunes. Will be keepings tabs on future releases for sure.

Des Veines D​é​mo 2024 cassette

I really enjoyed the balance these guys struck with a bit heavier and more distorted guitar in more classically punk tracks like “Torrent,” with a more melodic rock style to tracks like “Nous.” The vocals are charged with emotion, without being over-the-top or super angry like a lot of punk; they were refreshing. That being said, some of the tracks felt a bit long to me, as it sometimes felt like they said what they needed to a bit earlier in the song. However, each track brings something new to the table, so I would definitely keep listening.

Exploatör Apokollaps LP

I’ve been looking forward to this record, and I am not disappointed. EXPLOATÖR has an impressive pedigree, as the band members are like a who’s-who of Swedish hardcore. Their lineage features too many bands to list. This is a great record with a sound that leans heavily on their roots in TOTALITÄR. They bring the D-beat and some very catchy riffs to songs that seem to fly by as quickly as they started.. If you like Swedish hardcore, D-beat, etc., you will enjoy this album.

Fuck You Commercial The Complete Collection cassette

Compilation of four cassette releases from this Hawaii-based project. Each volume plays like a  chaotic mixtape teetering back and forth between vintage radio and TV commercials from Hawaii and speedy, blistering hardcore. Chipper voices and Muzak jingles from the past try to sell you cars and vacation packages one second, while gruff-voiced, anti-consumerist hardcore screeds blast the plastic packaging apart the next. Even better is when the two components overlap and create a sound collage of superficial consumer culture overtaken by menacing punk. Musically, there are cues from classic West Coast USHC in the vocals and straight-up bruising instrumentation, but also nods to sample-heavy powerviolence of the Slap-a-Ham blastbeat flavor. Operators are standing by to take your order! (Or you can stream for free on Bandcamp).

Generation Decline Stygian cassette

Nice and crusty hardcore from Bremerton’s GENERATION DECLINE. There’s a lot of good stuff going on on Stygian: thrashy riffs, chugging metal riffs, some soaring stadium leads, blastbeats, D-beats, and hardcore breakdowns. All said, it’s a busy but coherent listen, thanks largely to the solid vocals tying everything together. If you’re into ANTI SECT, AXEFEAR, AVSKUM, and NIGHTFEEDER (all bands they’ve shared bills with), you’ll be into this.

Karma Sutra The Daydreams of a Production Line Worker LP reissue

For the uninitiated, KARMA SUTRA was an anarcho-punk band from the Crass Records era, and they released a limited amount of original recordings. However, due to the cult of CRASS, KARMA SUTRA has had a few reissues of their material through the years, and for good reason. KARMA SUTRA emerges from the anarcho-punk scene with a sound that is reminiscent at times of KILLING JOKE, but also demonstrates the pop-infused post-punk of bands like THATCHER ON ACID and NED’S ATOMIC DUSTBIN. In other words, you have aggressive, dark punk blending with world music, primitive synth and drum machine work, radio field recordings, and lengthy melodic excursions. The Daydreams of a Production Line Worker is absolutely one of those albums you have to put on and sit with, as it is a constantly shifting sonic adventure.

Metdog Questions and Answers Regarding Computers and Screens LP

Do you remember the scene in Napoleon Dynamite where Kip sings “I love technology” over a Casio beat at his wedding? Imagine that with backing by ERIK NERVOUS and you have Melbourne band METDOG’s new record. A concept album of sorts, these thirteen songs are, as the title suggests, all about computers and screens. Opener “First and Last Day of My Life” is about the day Dad brought home a PC and changed the course of the singer’s personal history. The track list gives away the lyrical content for the rest: “What My Computer’s For,” “Screen Time,” “Computer Talk,” “Computer Games,” etc. You get the idea. Musically, the band buzzes with scruffy pop that intertwines guitar leads with bubbling synth washes and will resonate with fans of GEE TEE, RESEARCH REACTOR CORP., and, of course, DEVO. There are quite a few nice surprises, like when “Hey Siri” moves from garage punk to a pounding NEW ORDER-style club beat, and the synth take on “Miserlou” on “Surfing the Web” that probably has DICK DALE posthumously pissed. It’s a fun, low-stakes time for very online eggos. There is a vinyl pressing, but I think this one is better suited for digital download.

Minot And You’re Not cassette

Debut release by a three-piece band from Missoula, Montana, although this cassette plays as if it’s two releases spooled into one. The A-side is five songs of catchy and driving garage pop/psych, not unlike something you would find on In The Red Records. Very fun and I dig it. The B-side, however, has only three songs. Each of them are longer, with none of them clocking in under three minutes. All three of them are slower, more mature/less catchy, and considerably more artsy than the previous side. I was in the midst of jotting things down for the review during the first listen and had to rework it all because the difference in sides felt so jarring. It’s a bit funny when you start to notice how much your personal musical tastes and exposures can make you interpret things differently from others. For example, my initial inclination was to talk about how clean, slick, and professional the songs on this cassette are, but everywhere I look, the band seems to have “lo-fi” as a descriptive term for their band as often as they can affix it. Either way, I like MINOT (A-side MINOT, anyways), but this is definitely one of the cleaner cassette recordings I have reviewed in a while.

No Dreams All Bent Out of Shape CD

For fans of that style of ’00s songs by twenty-somethings talking about crushes, heartbreak, everyday pleasures, work and stuff, maybe parents, too. I like the sound of it, but I’m also instantly bored. It’s the movie soundtrack songs that you skip over to get to the song you bought the movie soundtrack for. I’m thinking the lesser JIMMY EAT WORLD, SIGNALS MIDWEST, PROMISE RING, TEXAS IS THE REASON, or SENSE FIELD songs, and on and on. This is completely adequate, but I think if you’re going to hit this style nowadays, ya gotta go for more than regular. Maybe they could consider switching instruments clockwise and see what happens. It could be genius or it could be horrible, but it won’t be medio-core.

Perfect Buzz Supermassive Superstar CD

Patrick “Petey” Foss has been a stalwart of the Portland punk and garage scene for over a decade now. He fronted PURE COUNTRY GOLD in the early ’00s as they’d tear up the local dive bars with their twangy, country-tinged punk blasts. Foss’s vocals now actually sound like his voice is getting younger as time rolls on. His current band, PERFECT BUZZ, has put out five new blistering tracks that they self-released, but they would have been at home on Estrus Records in their heyday. The opening track “Supermassive” has the swagger of MONO MEN or early MUDHONEY. “Wordsmithing” pulls from ’60s garage pop OBLIVIANS-style, and the closer “Superstar” is a fuzzed-out, lovelorn psych tune. Let’s hope we see a full-length from them soon.

Powerplant Crashing Cars / Never Smile 7″

New single from the prolific London-based POWERPLANT. With a slew of singles, EPs, and a couple LPs since 2018, this band has been busy. Formerly a solo project of Ukrainian Theo Zhykharyev, POWERPLANT is now a fully-membered band with Theo on guitar and vocals, supported by bass, drum, and synth (didn’t see any credits on this particular release to name them, however). Check out the band’s KEXP performance from September 2024, it feels like everyone is absolutely red-lining—the drummer is in a full sweat on the first song, the bassist is ping-ponging up and down the fretboard, the synth player is operating more keys, buttons, switches, and knobs than two hands allow, and Theo sells it hard into the mic, screaming, crooning, death-hollowing, and beating his guitar lifeless. If listening back to that performance and previous recordings in juxtaposition to “Crashing Cars”/”Never Smile” taught me anything, it is that this group plays a wide range of sounds, from moody dungeon synth, to black metal, to synth-driven post punk, to spurts of hardcore, often all in one song. On display here is something a little more catchy and driving. “Crashing Cars” has Zhykharyev crooning in a way that reminds me of FRANZ FERDINAND or the STROKES—the kind of alt/indie rock that was hard to avoid growing up—but I mean this in a positive way, if you can believe me! The even, smooth vocals sound really great in contrast to the jittery band, and makes for a perfectly tragic love song. “Never Smile” offers even deeper, richer vocals, maybe more like the haunting qualities of NICK CAVE, but still has a fast, driving beat, synth pushed way to the front of the mix. I admit that this is my introduction to POWERPLANT, but better late than never, as this group fucking rips.

Reason Why Cut You Loose EP

The gang over at Mendeku Diskak have done it, quite simply, once again. This release from REASON WHY is a lot of fun, emulating the classic Riot City or No Future sound to great effect. It’s not going to win any originality awards any time soon, but you can shove yer innovation where the sun don’t shine when it’s this much of a laugh. Fun sing-along at last orders UK82 by way of Istanbul.

Saufknast Saufknast LP

Classic punk band that’s not afraid to get in your face. I loved the fast tempo throughout, and the taunting, dare I say antagonizing, guitar. They didn’t slow down or stop for one second. My absolute favorite part was the breakdown in “Goldjunge.” I was headbanging with that puckered-up metal face, as they quickly transitioned into a slick guitar solo. Great way to end a great album.

Short Leash MK Ultra’d EP

This EP is some damn fine, burly-as-hell, mostly fast hardcore. The recording sounds fantastic as does the music, and the vocals sound tough as hell. This record left me wanting to hear more. This band has a pedigree as well, featuring members of NO TIME, KILL YOUR IDOLS, SHARK ATTACK, and VIOLENT MINDS. This record sounds like a mix of NEGATIVE APPROACH and ANTI-CIMEX, what’s better than that?

Sick Move Intrusive Thoughts LP

DIY from Baltimore that could fit on any Fat Wreck Chords or Epitaph comp or even be on one of those two labels. The LP is orange-ish or brown-ish in color and has a lyric sheet to follow along to all words, or to karaoke along if you’d like. Vocals are on the gruffer side of things, but the hooks are very hooky and completed by “ohhhhh”s and group choruses. It’s fast and tight like NOFX, BAD RELIGION, AMERICAN STEEL, BRACKET, GOOD RIDDANCE, and PENNYWISE. I think I expected something a little more challenging or more Baltimore from a Baltimore band. This record is great but, for me, it sounds a bit formulaic from such an iconoclastic city.

T.A.C.K. Tackle cassette

If you’re one for numerology, keep both your eyes on the number two here. Tackle is the second cassette release by T.A.C.K., who are a two-piece band from New Orleans. The band is comprised of drummer Stella, and guitarist Roach, both of whom share vocal duties. Their first cassette came out in April of 2023, marking almost exactly two years between releases. I played a show with T.A.C.K. in their hometown roughly two years ago and the power went out twice during the course of their set, due to a massive rain storm. What’s ironic is that for all the times it has come up, the number two in numerology is often associated with harmony, and that is one word I would absolutely not use to describe T.A.C.K.’s lo-fi, twangy, bopping, oompa-oompa cowpunk. T.A.C.K. finally follows up their debut five-song cassette with something more substantial, a whopping eleven tracks, each as trashy as the next. I find every song on this cassette incredibly catchy, and as a live band, T.A.C.K. is wildly commanding and entertaining.

The Hell Cut the Cord EP

Snarling like a puzzled panther, the HELL lurches through five slices of driving hardcore punk hostility. Harkening back to Cleveland classic (spin age) blasters like ELECTRIC EELS or the PAGANS, this is just the kind of seething punk I wanna hear. When nothing else in the world makes sense, snotty, nihilistic hardcore does. Razor-sharp guitars cut through to the front of the mix with riffs that would make Pat Smear blush. Four concise rippers occupy the topside of this platter, with a longer-form number on the B-side that unexpectedly breaks the five-minute mark. A brilliant follow-up to their full-length from a couple years back, the HELL is on an absolute tear. 

The Latin Dogs Warning! EP reissue

A time capsule of raw punk from Michigan—this reissued EP follows a once unreleased LP recorded straight to boombox in ’82. Grim hardcore from the era of cheap beer and cement basements. Total DIY ethos, somewhere between BATTALION OF SAINTS and early NECROS. It’s lo-fi, blown-out, and essential for anyone who lives for the sound of Midwestern punk being born in real time. The fidelity is trashy and perfect. An archeological artifact for everything-punk freaks—warts, hiss, and all.

Usurp Synapse Polite Grotesqueries 10″

Legendary Indiana-based screamo outfit USURP SYNAPSE resurfaces with Polite Grotesqueries, a vinyl reissue of their AssIIAss cassette originally released on Zegema Beach. Criminally overlooked compared to their early-’00s peers, the band delivers technical, aggressive, and unpretentious art-noise that calls to mind early DAUGHTERS, RACEBANNON, or a less perfect the LOCUST. Cramming a handful of minute-long panic attacks between a couple of two-minute epics, this EP may come off slightly more restrained than some of the scorched-earth chaos from their heyday (collected on the excellent 2003 compilation Disinformation Fix), but I don’t think they’ve ever sounded this good on record. Whatever they’ve been doing during their extended vanishing act, I’m not about to question it when the results slap this hard. Welcome back, you beautiful chaos demons.

Vampiric Baptism Vampiric Baptism cassette

One-man black metal action out of Tennessee. Really solid stuff, and very impressive that this is just one dude, sans the operatic vocals on “War Garden.” That’s only just a guess, though. It could potentially be the same guy! This is your standard black metal affair, but there are a couple tracks that reach outside of the genre, such as “Blood Sucker” which sounds like it came straight from the Matrix soundtrack. Great, bloodcurdling vocals; raw and natural without any additional effects, minus reverb. The album closes on a really lovely acoustic rendition of “War Garden.” Highly recommended for all fans of the grim and frostbitten

Wild City Alchemist Junkyard LP

You know the phenomenon in nature where an animal uses bright coloration or other means to advertise that it’s best not to fuck with them—think a poison dart frog or blue-ringed octopus? I had to look it up; it’s apparently called aposematism. But, in retrospect, it’s something I should have kept in mind as I picked up this LP. Its garish sleeve, the awful album title, the generic-ass band name, its unironic billing as a “rock’n’roll” record, the fact that the band has been around since 2018 and this is the first I’m hearing of them—it all screamed, “Dude, don’t, it’s gonna be a bad time!” Yet, I heeded none of these warnings. Instead, I focused on the fact that the act was out of Melbourne, a city which has given the world countless incredible bands, and just assumed it was all going to be fine. And initially it was. The first couple of tracks maybe feature some not great lyrics, but they otherwise kind of sound like the BLACK LIPS at their GUN CLUB-iest, which is cool enough. But then there’s “Silver to Gold,” which is more of a hard-rockin’ number, something like a blander take on what GOLDEN PELICANS were doing a decade ago, with lyrics that sort of invert the themes of the Girl Scouts’ “Make New Friends” via one of the clunkiest hooks I’ve ever heard (seriously, you’ll have to go listen to it because it’s too wordy to write out here!). But as bad as all that is, it’s not what sinks this record for me. At about two-and-a-half minutes into the song, the band slows things down to a crawl, and the singer says “Alright motherfuckers, let’s turn this shit up!,” then bites his lower lip (I assume!) while the band launches into an instrumental breakdown that’s so farty that it sounds tailor-made to score a Toyota Tundra commercial circa 2005. It’s maybe one of the worst moments I’ve had to sit through in all my time reviewing records for MRR. To be honest, the rest of the record wasn’t terrible…at least from what I can remember.  But it’s all a blur after the sting of track three. It might have sounded like a bar band covering the SCIENTISTS’ “Blood Red River.” I don’t know. I should have known to stay away!