Reviews

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!

Onyon Onyon cassette

Berlin has been the dominant player in the neo-Neue Deutsche Welle scene, from the Allee Der Kosmonauten collective (AUS, DIE SCHIEFE BAHN, etc.) to the recent output of the Mangel label (with the likes of KLAPPER and OSTSEETRAUM), but just a few hours to the south, the much smaller city of Leipzig has been holding its own, too—last year’s killer LP from MARAUDEUR exuded playful, synth-damaged art-punk cool, and this debut cassette from the new quartet ONYON brings shrouded-but-spiky, subtly goth-tinted post-punk à la early XMAL DEUTSCHLAND out of the Cold War and into the digital age. Vocals alternate between German and English, rarely deviating from a sternly deadpan shout, the beats are of the martial, unwaveringly hi-hat/snare-forward variety, and period-perfect ’80s keys help to scratch that waved-out Zickzack itch. When they raise the urgency level a bit, like on “Octopus” and especially “Klick,” ONYON pushes through the fog of mid-tempo cold-punk and right into the keyed-up synth punk territory of KITCHEN & THE PLASTIC SPOONS—those moments are when the tape really blazes; hoping they lean even harder into the wild electro-art-punk impulses next time around.

Powerage Demo MMXXI cassette

Bombastic, chugging metallic punk from Düsseldorf, Germany. This four-song demo gives strong early VENOM vibes with dissonant, grinding guitars, thick bass lines, and evil, growling vocals. The aesthetic of this demo reeks of the good old tape-trading days where the bands had more enthusiasm than quality recording equipment or graphic design skills. The result is no-frills headbanging and foot-stomping. Each track is packed with riffs and attitude. The first three stomp along at a moderate pace, and then the final track, “Fascist Scum,” picks up the pace to hardcore speeds. In fact, their Facebook page has a great portrait-mode cellphone video of them performing it live back in September 2020 in an actual garage and is worth a look.

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.

Schoolgirl Bitch Abusing the Rules / Think for Yourself 7″ reissue

Reissue of the lone 1978 from this band from Northwest England. Two catchy-as-heck, properly angst-filled tunes. The guys responsible for this excellent 7″ are Nick Name, Phil Serious and Kid Sick. Great names and great songs. If you have not heard this, don’t wait a minute longer. Fantastic.

Soy City Stranglers Black Deuce CD

Decatur, Illinois breeds a special kind of degenerate. Midwest, bleak, broke, and hopeless. These boys are trying to break the cycle of misery through rock’n’roll, and who could blame them. They obviously are trying their hearts out, playing their ZEKE-meets-KYUSS-meets-SLIPKNOT brand noise with some MADBALL breakdowns. You could easily see them as second-to-last on a twenty-band bill in some bleak megaplex boasting a KORN reunion. There they are, rocking their hearts out and stealing the other bands’ beer. The title track ain’t bad. Give them a break and buy their records.

Spit Kink Get It cassette

From too damn cold and funky Buffalo, New York, SPIT KINK has hocked up this wet, sticky loogie headed straight for your ears like a sexy wet willie, full of klang drum machine, industrial-sized bass lines, and sawtooth synths. These are some seriously sassy party rockers that give me major GENE DEFCON/PRIMA DONNAS vibes, and I love it. Get a few dozen strobe lights going and this duo can probably turn a Rust Belt living room into the sweatiest dance floor.

Tunic Quitter LP

Mean-spirited and frequently atonal noise rock from these Winnipeg crushers. For fans of TRIGGER CUT and TONGUE PARTY, this record features extremely tight rhythms with frequent time changes, filthy bass tones, and math-inspired dissonant guitars. The vocals veer from sardonic spoken verses to screamed parts. There is quite a bit of instrumental complexity happening in these tracks, and TUNIC creates an unending sense of tension and unease. Take the alternating feedback tones of “Stuck,” or the plodding start/stop bass lines of “Fake Interest.” The refrain of “Pattern Fixation” probably says it best: “This is filth / This is filth.” If you like unpleasant, pessimistic noise punk, you’ll be into this.

TVO Fall in a Pit 12″

Described on State Champion’s site as “Philly’s most haunted and deranged freaks”—this lot rocks. It’s fast and fun and heavy and is over before you know it: three songs on a single-sided 12″ with a hand screen-printed photo on the vinyl’s B-side. “Fall in a Pit” is a fantastic track, displaying TVO’s growth towards a tighter sound compared to their other releases, while still achieving that unhinged garage punk sound. Fall in a Pit made my Year End Top Ten, so what can I say, I’m a little biased!

The Welders Our Own Oddities 1977–81 LP

More than four decades after their demise, the WELDERS still remain one of the most supremely cool bands of all-time—five teenage girls (all between thirteen and fifteen when they started) who were inspired by the British Invasion and glitter rock to form their own band in St. Louis, Missouri(!) in 1975(!!), just before the first wave of punk would break in the Midwest and a whole year before the superficially similar RUNAWAYS would release their first album(!!!). The first four tracks on Our Own Oddities were sourced from an unreleased 1979 EP that BDR eventually rescued and pressed to 7″ in 2010 (the only recorded document of the WELDERS until now), with a glam-rooted power pop bounce presaging the Bomp!-ed sound of later groups like NIKKI AND THE CORVETTES. The members of the WELDERS were all bookish honor student types who consciously rejected any sort of tough, hyper-sexualized RUNAWAYS-esque posturing right off the bat, and the abandoned EP features some seriously smart, viciously clever songs that took lecherous creeps to task (“P-E-R-V-E-R-T”), embraced their good-girl reputations (“S-O-S Now,” a prude empowerment anthem written after they got grief for their reluctance to look at a photo of Captain Sensible of the DAMNED sans pants!), and skewered regressive patriarchal traditions (“Debutantes in Bondage”), with a classically lovelorn ’60s girl group-meets-bubblegum punk number (“Baby Don’t Go”) thrown in for good measure. The rest of the LP is an assemblage of never-heard live recordings, basement demos, and a handful of takes from free studio sessions that guitarist Rusty was provided with as part of a college recording class, charting the WELDERS’ movement through some lineup changes and stylistic turns as the ’70s ended, with keyboards and an expanding post-punk awareness entering the picture by 1980 (according to the liner notes, the multi-lingual jagged pop jam “Tourist Trap” was influenced by vocalist Colleen’s “favorite band MAGAZINE,” and it shows). It’s all uniformly excellent, and if some of those later rehearsal tapes had been captured in a less roughed-up context, they could have easily fit into a new wave landscape of B-52’S and ROMEO VOIDs—the alternate timeline’s loss is our current timeline’s gain.

Apatia Bóg, Honor, Ojczyzna Faszyzm LP

The music on APATIA’s 1992 debut varies a bit within its HC/punk framework. While the drums beat an even pace, the guitarist plays palm-muted riffs, conventional leads, or dissonant, almost math-rock scales along with the standard three distorted chords. They can also quiet down while the bass and drums lead. The band is innovative while remaining faithful to the genre. Unfortunately, the songs don’t always tie these different sounds together. They can sound like parts of altogether different songs spliced into one. But APATIA on record are an otherwise tight unit, even when their musical ambitions get ahead of them.

Blurt Blurt + Singles 2xLP

BLURT was the unhinged id under the cool demeanor of the Manchester scene focused around Factory Records. Led by poet, performance artist, and saxophone blartist Ted Milton, BLURT’s name summed up their exploding art brut attack, howling absurdist Tzaraist cut-ups (my favorite titles: “Dog Save My Sole” and “My Mother Was a Friend of an Enemy of the People”) over minimal loops of fractured guitar and a stripped-down kit of stiff funk drum breaks. This reissue pairs their first LP with a second disc compiling their first four singles, including the uptight gonzo classic “The Fish Needs a Bike.”

Börn Drottningar Dauðans LP

I always like to look at the art of the album before listening to a record, so I feel like I can try to guess what it is going to sound like—this one was a surprise, a really great surprise. I love everything about this LP: the voice, the guitars, the drums, the bass. One thing that makes me really excited about this band is that they kinda remind me of SCARLET’S REMAINS, a deathrock band I used to listen to when I was like fifteen years old. I mean, not that they sound the same, they have a totally different style, but this album is pure obscure perfection.  Amazing record for deathrockers and post-punkers.

Charged D.I.S. Charged D.I.S. cassette

This band has got it going on with the band name CHARGED D.I.S. They play a calamity of noise, with strange samples, awkward graphics, D-beat rhythms, classic riffing, and a warbled recording with from-the-throat singing. A lot of the constant sampling is children crying. I can hardly read the song titles, but I’m pretty sure they include “Killing” and “Humans.” The demo insert folds out and suggests you “cut here” (at the dotted line) “and hang” a (miniature) poster design. That’s just funny. It is of a larger gas-masked figure marionetting a smaller gas-masked figure with the header “D New World Graves.” There are also graves in the image. I’m hoping CHARGED D.I.S. made like ten of these and I’m now rich, because I could see that happening. Play this for your dog, see what happens. D.I.S. FTW.

Dishuman Demo 2021 cassette

When this one was originally released back in May 2021, right at the crest of the pandemic, it came to my attention that it was made by three kids in a town near the town I live in. Being that most of the “DIS” bands are hit-or-miss for me, I was a bit skeptical. But boy, was I wrong! This is a killer demo, and they sure know their DISCHARGE really well! I was instantly hooked on this one and they became one of my favourite Portuguese bands. This excellent demo showcases five songs that sound like they were recorded in ’82 on Stoke-on-Trent, plus a DISCLOSE cover. Bright things will come for these youngsters’ future if they keep this level of dedication up.

Eterno Ritorno Eterno Ritorno cassette

ETERNO RITORNO is a punk band from the Veneto region in northern Italy, formed with people from bands like TETRO PUGNALE, KNIGHTZZ, and 3ND7R. This is their debut EP, and it comes in the form of a cassette tape limited to 30 illustrated copies; a beauty of four songs full of dread, anger and desperation. The sound reminds me of the beautiful noise of the Italian hardcore wave of the ’80s, but it is precisely the rabid delivery of the vocals that gives a definite personality to a band that explores all the vicissitudes of living in a deeply conservative region of the country. Keep an eye on them, they have a bright future.

Fashion Change Devil Laugh EP

In just four short tracks, FASHION CHANGE put all of their cards on the table. This is really some good old-fashioned, no-frills hardcore punk with all of the audio fidelity of recording in a rotten dumpster. Hey, maybe that’s the way punk was designed to sound. The vocals are close enough to fit on a screamo record, the drums endlessly beat the listener, and the guitars growl like chainsaws. This is one that just isn’t for me. It’s just too grimy and loose to get into, but I have no doubt there is an audience for this EP. If you like the feeling of being trampled in a mosh pit, then this is about as close to that feeling as you’ll find in a recording.

Gentleman Jesse Lose Everything LP

Melancholy songs always sound beautiful. If you are someone who does not pay attention to lyrics, you will easily be lost in the pleasing, comforting sounds of “Lose Everything.” If you pay attention to lyrics, the disillusion and desolation being sung is wonderfully cathartic. It’s been ten years since the last GENTLEMAN JESSE record. On this one, the pandemic forced him to go it alone and play all the instruments. The isolation and self-reliance adds to the effect. My mind starts going as the music plays and then an interesting lyrical line will jump out of me. The result is an intimate collection of songs that reminds me of some of the more introspective ’80s college rock bands. 2021 was a shitty year and 2022 is starting off worse. As ELTON JOHN once said, sad songs say so much.

Italia 90 Borderline / Declare 7″

Fifth release from Londoners ITALIA 90. “Borderline” has a staccato guitar line that turns into a wailing, melodic chorus riff beneath the lyrics “And the thing you’ve created / Is the thing you have hated.” Great track. While “Borderline” has a more traditional structure, “Declare” is the other side of the coin: avant-garde noise rock. Lots of ambient space for drums and a rambling whistle/dial tone, then a sudden wall of sound, shouting a snotty, Cockney “Declare!” Worth the quick listen.

La Race Je Me Rapproche de Mon Squelette LP

Recorded in an abandoned Belgian brewery, LA RACE presents brutally stark, molasses-thick rock-noise. Finding a place just north of black metal hell, the absolutely shredded vocals sound more like KK Null ran out of lozenges again. All jokes aside, this band means fucking business. LA RACE channels BILLY BAO’s furious conceptual gambits, but with the unalleviated disgust aimed inward, like a cancer. When they’re hitting all cylinders, the band conjures the disembodied hardcore of FUSHITSUSHA, slabs of sound sparking like old ghosts tangled in powerlines. Even when it seems subdued, Je Me Rapproche de Mon Squelette (translation: “I’m Getting Closer to My Skeleton”) never lets up on the intensity. An unmistakable howl into the void, you can hear the wind blowing through this album. It won’t keep you warm but it might keep you company.

Letha Letha demo cassette

Anemic-sounding drum machine punk with simple riffs and an excess of tape hiss. Basic and a bit dumb, but I guess that’s the point. From what I can tell the band(?) is from Australia, and they’re on a Polish DIY cassette label. I think that’s a used condom on the cover? Or perhaps a human colon?

Meat Thump Under the Bridge cassette

Supremely shambolic live-in-2011 tape from these Brisbane jangle punks. With the gross band name and Mike Diana-style cover art, I was bracing myself for something disgusting, but was pleasantly surprised to hear music closer to SWELL MAPS or maybe the VASELINES. With out-of-tune clean guitars, laconic, slurred vocals, and a performance that could politely be called messy, MEAT THUMP has a charm that comes from the joy of creating music for themselves. The lyrics are barely decipherable and sound like streams of consciousness, but they work and frequently match the vibe so well that the drunken-Lou Reed ramblings sound meaningful and tug at your heartstrings (especially “Box of Wine” and “Wish”). Does the band begin and end each song at the same time? Nope. Does this tape occasionally sound like complete shit? Yep. Do they incorporate a verse of EAZY-E’s “Boyz-n-the-Hood” in a really unfortunate way? Yeah, they do. Would I recommend this to anyone looking for earnest punk-inspired DIY creation? Absolutely. Postscript: As I was finishing up this review, I read that singer/guitarist Brendon Annesley passed away in 2012. That discovery had a sobering effect on what was a relatively light listen. Hug your friends and do stuff now instead of waiting for the future.

Milt The Days of Milt cassette

Right off the bat, MILT introduces themselves with their fierce brand of garage and hardcore. The guitars are downright filthy, and the vocals manage to top that. It’s aggressive, gnarly, and dripping with attitude. Just about everything you could want in a punk tape. Australia has had something of a garage renaissance recently and this is some of the cream of the crop, for damn sure. A real highlight of this cassette is the band’s cover of the WIGGLES’ “Fruit Salad.” Any band who can pull off a WIGGLES cover deserves some praise. 

Misantropic Catharsis LP

This is an angry album. Gerda, the female lead vocalist, rails at the patriarchy and capitalism as the guitars weave back and forth easily between hardcore and metal. Each song is fast, crusty, and powerfully emotive lyrically. “Day of Reckoning ” is nothing less than a battle anthem from the gutter. “Fragmentation” is pure hardcore excellence with Gerda shouting back and forth with the male vocalist, Matte. They even throw in some violins and synthesizers on a couple tracks, and it takes nothing away from the blistering rawness. After nine tracks of anarcho-rage that fans of WOLFBRIGADE will appreciate, the album manages to close on a hopeful yet pissed-off note with “The Dying of the Light,” declaring to their children “To my daughter, to my son / The future is yours when the battle is done.”

Neuf Volts Demo 2021 cassette

New French quartet, kind of in the realm of hardcore, but with atypical babydoll vocals that come in syllable-jamming succession. The combo lands nicely. The closer “Super Skate” is an interpretation of a RIKA ZARAρ track (1978 French pop song about skateboarding? Yes, please). I don’t know how I feel about the eponymous anthem trope of “Neuf Volts,” so maybe it’s good they got it out of their system on the demo. I’ll keep listening.

Potpourri Potpourri cassette

Here’s a beguiling one, a short broadcast of weirdness from Omaha that is shivering with cold and tape hiss. It really is an exercise in presentation, as the degraded quality of sound perfectly mirrors the metronomic soundtrack to collapse. Contemporaries that leap to mind are INSTITUTE and even DAWN OF HUMANS, although I don’t recall either of those bands ever incorporating bongos into their sound. Well, guess what, POTPOURRI goes for it, and although at first blush my ears were trying to pinpoint what the hell it was, it actually lends an interesting layer. Everything here sounds like it was either intricately placed or improvised entirely, the kind of balanced chaos that perfectly suits a certain type of heady, lo-fi punk. The guitar has a really nice sonorous tone to it in addition to being harsh and tinny—one of the many balancing acts going on that really make this band shine. It’s feel-bad music that feels really good.

Rekrut Demo ‘84 / Jarocin ’84 LP

Lo-fi ’80s Polish hardcore demo given a deluxe gatefold reissue by Warsaw Pact. Chunky riffs and blitzing tunes, minimal tape hiss, and cymbals cutting hard in the drum mix. This type of punk isn’t my wheelhouse, the liner notes are in Polish, and I couldn’t find much info online, but if obscure Eastern Euro hardcore is your bag, then this should probably be in it.

Sophisticated Boom Boom Sophisticated Boom Boom LP reissue

Before teaching themselves the instruments that they would use to make timeless buzzsaw punk/C86 pop in CHIN CHIN, bassist Esther and drummer Marianne started out as co-vocalists in the ’80s-goes-’60s group SOPHISTICATED BOOM BOOM—three women up front at the mic with musical backing provided by all-male Swiss punks SOZZ, offering up malt shop sounds for the new wave age. With a band name lifted from the SHANGRI-LAS and more than a few song titles that could have been pulled straight from the RONETTES/CHIFFONS/SHIRELLES (“Jimmy Jimmy,” “Ready to Dance,” “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” etc.), the girl group influence on SOPHISTICATED BOOM BOOM’s 1982 LP is just as pronounced as it was in CHIN CHIN’s soaring-but-wistful, “Be My Baby”-layered harmonies, crashed through the wall of sound to hit more of a twist-and-shout garage beat with wailing sax and giddy teen dance energy. For all of the blatant retromania, there’s also some very de rigeur ’80s post-punk moves in the BOOM BOOM mix, like the spacious dub echo and spectral RAINCOATS-esque vocals in “Dance With Me,” or “Boom Boom Rap” snapping into some elastic downtown funk-punk, or the horn-spiked, PIGBAG’d polyrhythmic clatter of “Numa”—the result is almost precisely Red Bird meets Rough Trade, and it’s charming as hell.

Soy City Stranglers Midwest Rock N Roll EP

Four doses of fast and furious Midwestern hardcore punk. Tasteful touches of metal (the slow bit in “Counting the Days” into the “let’s go” that brings back the charge is especially choice) and lots of single-note guitar picking à la Filthy Phil, and then they drop serious tonnage on the hardcore breakdowns. Q: What do you get when you combine testosterone, beer, full stacks, and denim? A: SOY CITY STRANGLERS. 

Spike Pit 2 Heavy Metal 4 Punk cassette

The non-stop, hard-working Clevo wrecking machine SPIKE PIT pumps out yet another, and this might be the best so far. Technically, this is three songs from the upcoming magnus opus Bastard of No Future LP, with a couple bonuses like the insane title track and the aptly-named “Annoying” (I dare you to listen to the whole song). Thrash, bash, slash with no cash could be this band’s motto, as they slay with CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER metallic-testicled PUNCTURE WOUND/GSMF-like hardcore punk fury. “White World” is clever and tasteless as hell. Pure genius. More please now give me!

Teenage Hearts Want More! LP

Oi! from France. Oui? There’s some kind of wordplay to be worked out here. Regardless, this Nantes-based crew fully brings it with seven tracks of rough-and-tumble working class rumblers. This feels cozy alongside contemporaries from across the channel CHUBBY & THE GANG and the CHISEL, hitting the same sweet spot of bluesy stomp with beer hall shout-along anthems that are properly pissed-off and world-weary. The guitars cut really nicely here, just the right amount of sharpness on the ear. The vocals have that rock-gargling quality to them as well, exactly what you’re looking for in proper fookin’ Oi! If you’ll pardon my incorrect French: this is très bonne merde, indeed.

Toxic Control Dexconxtroll CD

TOXIC CONTROL is all over the map in style, from raw street punk to dub mixed with grunt-like Japanese rap to grimacing muffled noisecore and some roots rock…it all seems very deliberately abrasive. Sung in Japanese, some song title examples include “End Stop and Frisk,” “Fuck Homophobia,” “All You Fascists Bound to Lose,” and “Who Killed the City?,” and with lyrics provided in English, I can really start to relate with TOXIC CONTROL. TOXIC CONTROL is from Tokyo, but I’d like to know the answer to who killed where I live, too—I think we all do. The irony is not lost on me…anyway, I find myself bouncing to this gnarly bizarre punk expression like I’m young, free and crazy. Unfortunately, I’m left with crazy, but I’d like to be free if only in my mind. TOXIC CONTROL definitely are. Nice work from this three-piece. Reminds me of ZYANOSE meets very early CASUALTIES or CHOKING VICTIM. “Tu Puedes! Antifascista!“

V/A Anti Human Trafficking Benefit Comp cassette

Literal twelve-year-old AJ Cortes, label boss over at the Miami-based Gravity Hill Records (a cassette label), has compiled sixteen slime-covered tracks from whatever strain of mutants have evolved in this post-LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS world. As you probably gathered from the title, this comp is meant to combat human trafficking in some sense. Although, it’s unclear whether the proceeds are going to a particular organization or if this comp is just meant to “raise awareness.” In any case, at just $4 for the digital release, you’re getting a pretty big bang for your buck. The compilation features a lot of folks who you’ve likely already heard and have opinions about—M.A.Z.E., PRINT HEAD, BILLIAM, and NEO NEOS to name a few. But it also features even more artists whom you’ve likely never heard of (or you’ve had your ear way closer to the ground than I have). We’re getting tracks from WWW, YOKE, GEORGE CRUSTANZA, MAYGE, and the SUXX—if you don’t like the first set of bands I named, you won’t like these either. Mr. Cortes supplies at least three of the tracks on here as well with his projects AJ CORTES AND THE BURGLARS and BENNY AND THE BOYS, the latter of whom cover two tracks by the WAD. You absolutely have to give “Nog Bag” a listen—the bass sound that starts the track is so insane and great that I might actually prefer this to the original. And it wouldn’t be a punk comp without a seemingly out-of-place/shitty track, and unfortunately that is provided here by HEARTLESS FOLK—this sounds like GOOD RIDDANCE or some other Fat Wrecks grunty pop punk. Anyway, this release really reminded me of what I loved about those early days of Lumpy Records—just a bevy of weirdo bands I’ve never heard of, not all of whom I like, but all of whom make me sit up and think, “Whoa! What the hell is this?!”

Aborted Tortoise A Album LP

If you, like me, mourn the loss of the great AUSMUTEANTS and are jonesing for that same mix of uptempo garage punk, DEVO-lved new wave, and American hardcore, you may want to turn to this Perth five-piece to get your fix. That’s not to say they’re a rip-off or a perfect copy. The songwriting here is a little less catchy, you get snake-y guitar lines in place of the synth riffs, and ABORTED TORTOISE is a little more DEAD KENNEDYS compared to AUSMUTEANTS’ MINOR THREAT (check out “R.L. Stine” or the surf instrumental “DLC”). But the overall vibes are very similar, particularly in the way the vocalist does that same talk-singing to Squeaky-Voiced Teen shout that was one of the hallmarks of AUSMUTEANTS. Where these guys stand out, though, is in the way they weave together their lead, rhythm, and bass guitar parts. The interplay on “CGI,”with all three switching between super busy lines and synchronized rhythmic punches, is super impressive. Give it a listen!

Alternative TV How Much Longer / You Bastard 7″ reissue

Spanish label Munster Records is responsible for outstanding reissue work that has bequeathed us treasures from all over the Americas and Europe. Now, they’ve reissued the seminal 1977 debut single by the band founded by Mark Perry (editor of the zine Sniffin’ Glue), Alex Fergusson (PSYCHIC TV), GENERATION X’s John Towe, and Tyrone Thomas. An absolutely necessary exercise in self-criticism about the insurmountable contradictions of the English punk scene on Side A, and a self-conscious rant about rock’n’roll on the B-side. A great opportunity to get this piece of history, with one of the favorite songs of this writer, on plastic.

Bam Bam Villains (Also Wear White) 12″

I love when a record is reissued and it completely upends how we understand music history, giving us new classics to revere and pioneers their proper place. Chicago label Bric-a-Brac’s reissue of the 1983 EP (as well as some unreleased demos) by BAM BAM is like an editor’s red pen scratching out and rewriting the history of Seattle underground music as we’ve all known it. There’s been a lot written about BAM BAM lately as “proto-grunge,” or the “godfathers/godmother of grunge,” but I cringe to use the G-word at all in writing this review, as I don’t relate much of what BAM BAM displays on this record to anything that came in the Nevermind ’90s. This is simply an excellent ’80s Pacific Northwest punk record that you could put against fellow Seattlites SOLGER or the FARTZ or even POISON IDEA. BAM BAM’s songs are exceptionally more hooky and melodic than your average punk band at the time, but I can’t imagine songs like “Villains,” “Stress,” or “Heinz 57” not bringing a crowd in 1983 to a slam dance frenzy. While Tommy Martin’s seared, string-bending leads stand out, it’s Tina Bell’s vocals that give the band its sharpened tip. Her finely-honed pipes are given raw-throat voice as she tears through the band’s whirled din. There’s a gravity in her voice, a confidence in her delivery, and a passionate conviction in the words she’s singing that sounds like she was channeling from a deeper well than your average hardcore hollerer. The fact that we’re only giving Tina her just due, flowers, and kudos in 2022 (ten years after her untimely passing) is almost absurd given the evidence on this record. This should have been a classic already, but hopefully this lovingly-made reissue will finally give Tina Bell her stature in the punk pantheon next to other major voices like Poly Styrene and Alice Bag. Play it loud and burn a candle for Tina while you’re at it, a woman of color who fought for her place in a music scene that didn’t have one carved out for her.

Barrera Visiones Nocturnas 12″

At the first strike of the chords, one automatically expects a four-count followed by some D-beat destruction, but quickly you are met with another reality. BARRERA from Valencia almost sounds like post-punk, but soon you understand that it is just stripped-down, slow, primitive and suffocating punk. Hypnotic like BRAINBOMBS, noisy like FLIPPER, charismatic like the STOOGES, and dramatic like QLOAQA LETAL. Visiones Nocturnas offers seven gloomy tracks that, if you understand the lyrics, will shatter your emotions. This just proves that Spanish punk bands are at the top of their game.

Crisis Beat Void of Humanity cassette

Hailing from Brazil, CRISIS BEAT plays a subtle mix of gothic Oi!-style hardcore and metallic punk, picking up the energy of CAMERA SILENS, the gloom of some darker metal bands such as BLOOD INCANTATION, and harsh, desperate, echoing crust à la MÖRKHIMMEL.. Some Motör-charged elements and Burning Spirits-style work make for a unique experience melding modern psych-metal, crust (vocals), and all sorts of weird, unexpected macabre interludes. Five tracks of anti-fascist dark metal punk that span the influence of several decades of noise and experimentation.

D.Y.E. D.Y.E. cassette

D.Y.E begins their cassette with a steady thump of bass and floor toms, accompanied by looming feedback. After that, they plow and plod through the next three songs. These qualities are staples of the ’80s US hardcore repotoire, which the band clearly studied. The demo’s moderate audio quality allows them to show off that attention to detail. The vocals are a touch lower than the guitars and drums, making it sound like the singer is screaming to match their volume. This can invoke a show in a basement, dive bar, or dive bar in a basement.

The Ergs! Time and the Season EP

At long last, the ERGS! have returned and blessed the universe with a new 7″. Two originals and two covers make up this record, and these Jersey fellas haven’t lost a step. The originals are the highlights here. “Ultimate Falsetto Book” is a mid-tempo toe-tapper, while “Half Empty Strip Mal” is a faster, more upbeat ditty. Both are classic ERGS!. As for the two covers, the first is their version of “Say You’re Sorry” from ’60s garage band the REMAINS, which sounds like it could have been a lost DESCENDENTS song. Finishing up this EP is a cover of the ZOMBIES’ “Time and the Season.” This is pretty much a spot-on cover, just a bit beefed up. All in all, a solid and welcomed offering from Jersey’s best prancers.

Fatties Didn’t See Shit EP

Orlando punks outshining Mickey and Pulse. Dayglo puke-inspired color schemes instantly nauseate the listener, then you start the music—Big Man garage punk with skinny guy attitude, wicked humor, and freeform circus-prog musicianship. CARBONAS and BEAT BEAT BEAT crossed with early RANCID VAT and ZOOGZ RIFT. “Didn’t See Shit” is killer. Touch me please. I’m sick.

 

Generacion Suicida Regeneracion LP

GENERACION SUICIDA is one of the best punk bands in California right now, and that’s saying something when you’re talking about such a fertile scene. After a four-year wait, the band released Regeneracion at the end of 2021. Ten tracks (in twenty-three minutes) of hardcore attack (the fast and brutal drum work is awesome), with piercing bass and guitars halfway between the CHAMELEONS and WIPERS. It’s really a very beautiful guitar tone. The lyrics are full of rage about life in the empire: violence, racism, abuse of authority. Musically, it all works to give depth to a very developed melodic sense. A great album that grows with each listen—listen to “Fuego” or “Identidad” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Richard Hamilton My Perfect World cassette

Sickeningly sweet glam pop with heavy ’90s indie vibes. Vocals are soft and smooth with femme backing accents floating in the mist (sometimes), and the whole thing creeps under your skin something fierce. On this cassette version of last year’s CD on Quality Time Records, RICHARD HAMILTON (a.k.a. Ricky Hamilton, Ricky Hell) proves (again) that he’s not only versatile, but that he’s one of the unheralded treasures of modern DIY music. A truly magical, masterful collection of should-be hits…pure, mature, perfectly polished and presented for your enjoyment.

Infinite X’s Infinite X’s LP

Here we have a remastered vinyl reissue of the INFINITE X’S’ 2002 self-titled album. With members of formative queercore bands TEAM DRESCH and LONGSTOCKING, this album is an indie pop smash hit. Loaded with catchy riffs, clap tracks, and interlaced with sections of minor-chord despair (“Bittersweet”). “Joanna”is a fucking amazing love song that crescendos to a hands-in-the-air chorus, while “Welcome to the Show” fires ya up and gets you moving. Sign me up.

Los Microwaves The Birth of Techno LP

This is not the birth of techno, but it is an interesting collection of studio outtakes and live tracks recorded between 1980–1983 by this unique Jose band. Nestled somewhere between post-punk and synth pop, LOS MICROWAVES consisted of bass, drums, and analog synths, and created music that was made for the dance floor as much as the punk club. The first five tracks are studio recordings that didn’t make it on the band’s sole LP, 1981’s Life After Breakfast. These are all pretty slick recordings, two of them instrumental dance tracks. The synths are bright and bouncy, foretelling chiptunes and well, big beat techno, in their playfulness. “I Can’t Say” is the standout here, with a perfect pop chorus. The live tracks on side two are much more interesting, leaving behind the pop sheen of bands like EURYTHMICS and HUMAN LEAGUE for new wave/post-punk sounds in the realm of BLONDIE or the B-52’S. The latter reference is especially true on “Sniper,” with exotica synths, call-and-response vocals, and a general weirdness that makes it an odd treat. “My Baby Tried to Kill Me” is another highlight, with what I can only describe as organ-grinder- meets-breakbeat production behind vocalist Meg Brazill’s wail. The looseness of the live tracks shows a band that was willing to experiment and have fun. I can imagine the audience split between dancers and cross-armed mopers, enjoying themselves equally. I wouldn’t call this collection essential, but it is a compelling look at an innovative and underheard band.

Manual Scan Plan of Action EP reissue

A fixture on the SoCal mod revival scene, this band of San Diego mop-tops produced a brand of power pop heavily indebted to ’60s garage and freakbeat. MANUAL SCAN’s debut 7″ EP Plan of Action (a spiritual cousin to SECRET AFFAIR’s “Time for Action”?) was originally released in 1983 on their own Dance and Stance label, and we find it reissued here by Snap!! Records out of Madrid, who also recently released an EP by fellow American mod revivalists MOD FUN. Upbeat, unpretentious, and delightfully catchy, every song on here is a winner. The opening track “Nothing You Can Do” swipes its vocal hook from the YARDBIRDS’ “For Your Love” (no one ever said the mod revival was original), while my personal favorite “New Difference” is punchy yet wistful. Recommended if you like the early singles by the LAST, or if you’re just a fan of the ’60s as filtered through the ’80s. Double nostalgia!

The Midnight Vein Kill the King Above / The Link cassette

Making music is not a problem for Buffalo madman John Toohill. My dude is never not releasing something! If I had to guess, I’d say the toughest thing for him would be deciding which of his many projects to attribute a song to—SCIENCE MAN, SPIT KINK, BRUTE SPRING, TURQUOISE WINDOW, the HAMILTONES, ALPHA HOPPER, ISMATIC GURU, etc. (I made up one of those, but I doubt he’d have any trouble cranking out something under that name). Anyway, he’s got two tracks for us here as the MIDNIGHT VEIN, his psych-rock outlet. “Kill the King Above” starts out as a stripped-down, acoustic psych number with a vocal melody that calls to mind “Sympathy for the Devil” in no small part due to the Mick-on-Quaaludes performance John gives here. The track slowly builds until it (fittingly) explodes into a Keith Richards-like lead freakout and fades back out. It’s cool enough—kinda reminds me of Goodbye Bread TY SEGALL. The real winner here, though, is “The Link.” It’s six minutes of primitive proto-punk that sounds like “White Light/White Heat” being bashed out on 80 guitars. Every now and then an unruly axe or two will emerge from the fray to absolutely blister your face, while John issues what sound like reprimands to whomever dares underestimate “The Link.” Real good shit!

Nervous Tick and the Zipper Lips / Obsoletism The Covid Collaborations: Vol. III cassette

This tape is the third in a series of lockdown collaborations organized by NERVOUS TICK, featuring good-time garage rock group OBSOLETISM this time around. There have been a lot of pandemic-era records born out of lockdown, most bringing the dark sounds of isolation to the forefront of their sound. This tape, on the other hand, strives for a brand of punk that makes you feel upbeat. Much like the RAMONES, these tracks are anthemic. Pounding with three-chord bliss, this cassette really ends up being a great way to spend the afternoon.

Party Day Sorted! 2xLP

A gloomy and atmospheric post-punk/goth-adjacent group from Barnsley, England, PARTY DAY won the affection of John Peel with their 1983 debut single “Row the Boat Ashore.” Their dour countenance and bass-led rhythms slot comfortably aside more recognizable contemporary acts like the SOUND and JOY DIVISION. Sorted! is a double-LP compilation representing the whole of their recorded history: two full-length albums and a handful of singles and EP tracks. The track “Glasshouse” (there are two versions included here) stands out as a highlight, a shimmering and sweet melancholic strum that brings to mind what the CHURCH was doing at the time. Other highlights include the propulsive “Rabbit Pie,”  the sullen six-minute epic “Atoms,” and “Career,” the last of which channels early KILLING JOKE. Proof positive that there is still interesting, even transcendent material to be unearthed from the milieu of forgotten ’80s post-punk.

Rat Cage In the Shadow of the Bomb / Scared of the Truth 7″

RAT CAGE is back after the excellent split Skopje vs Sheffield with Macedonian mangel maniacs NERVOUS SS. This is their new lathe-cut, two-song single, with all proceeds going to the Lughole in Sheffield. First we have “In The Shadow of the Bomb,” which comes close to WOLFPACK due to the chord changes and chorus hooks under a steady demolishing D-beat. Then “Scared of the Truth,” which channels a mid-tempo DISCHARGE-meets-TOTALITÄR vibe. Overall, a great follow-up to the split and a step ahead for the band in terms of sound discovery.