A vision of walking around and imagining my Walkman headphones were actually giant speakers accompanying me forcing the world into dancing and performing their tasks to my music. If I had giant speakers up in the sky blasting my own music then everywhere I went people would have to listen to my music and the world would have a uniform emotion, a sort of interconnectedness. Like an unrelenting soundtrack to which everyone must acquiesce… These are my speakers in the sky.
Vista Blue released a 4 track ep titled New Nightmares and the songs are inspired by a quartet of horror movies; Halloween III, Candyman, Terror Train & Friday the 13th VI.
As always with the Nashville power pop outfit what we get is a very catchy collection of songs and you can get the ep as a name your price download on their Bandcamp.
This track is the Friday the 13th VI inspired one, or to be more specific it's inspired by the cop in that movie who has a laser scope that he says he's been dying to use. He says, "Wherever the red dot goes... ya bang!" It's one of the most famous and cheesiest quotes from the series and there's a clip of the scene here.
Based in La Rochelle, France, Bart And The Brats is the solo project featuring Bart De Vraantijk who you may know from bands such as Wild Zeros, Teenage Hearts, The Janitors, The Pneumonias, Skeptics and more. Bart has been brought up on a diet of late 70's punk and no doubt has plenty of Killed By Death and Bloodstains comps in his collection.
The new ep features 3 tracks with sharp guitars, loud bass, pounding drums and snotty vocals. It's titled Livin' In The Future and it's out on Spanish label Take The City Records
All 3 songs are winners but it's the title track that's on Youtube so that's what you're getting. A prime cut of budget rock, this is Livin' In The Future...
The Chevelles are from Perth, Western Australia, and have been around for over 3 decades. They play a mix of power pop, punk and garage rock and feature a line up of Duane Smith (Vocals/guitars), Adrian Allen (Guitars/vocals), Jeff Halley (Bass/vocals) & Ian Tubbs (Drums).
They've been pretty quiet in recent times but are going to be releasing a new album next year. They recently showcased the first single from it. It's on Wicked Cool Records and it's streaming on their Bandcamp
A nice blast of infectious psychedelia, this is Steve McQueen (I Wish I Was)...
Brazilian/Danish married duo Flavia & Martin Couri have had a busy year. You'll probably know them better as The Courettes.
If you are a fan of the garage rocking twosome then you need a copy of their new album, Back In Mono. Pitched as “spit ´n´snarl garage rumble-meets-Phil Spector pop” it's a modern day classic. It's 14 killer garage rock tracks given an impressive production job. It's the 60's transported into the modern age. It's an album full of delights. It's available on vinyl, cd and digital download here :
This song reminds me a little of Love You So by The King Khan & BBQ Show. It's a vibrant up tempo rocker that'll have you bopping around. You may recognise it as a reworking of a track from the 2019 Too Late To Say I'm Sorry ep. It's called Won't Let You Go...
An album that's providing me with much pleasure this morning is Keep On Truckin'. It's by Surfbort and it's essential listening. It's packed with should be hits. It's commercial enough to pick up mainstream acclaim but cool enough to keep us more discerning types happy too.
We've already had the pleasure of a few of the tracks such as FML, White Claw Enema Bong Hit and new single Big Star but by no means are they the only high points. Songs such as Open Your Eyes, Dicks In Space, Youth Group Therapy (just to name a few) are equally infectious. It's an album that's consistent throughout.
With so many great highlights to select from, I'm going with Youth Group Therapy.
Brisbane 4 piece Flangipanis are back with a new album (their 8th) titled Fuckin' Woo which will be released on Friday. Good Little Taxpayer is their single from it and it is an incendiary track, which is typical Flangipanis, walking the line between hardcore and pop punk, there's a big, beefy pummelling sound that doesn't forget to simultaneously be very catchy indeed. Vocalist Jodie Lawlor is on fine form bemoaning the daily grind of the over worked & under paid. We're expected to shut our mouths and be good little drones. It's not just work though that's the problem, society in general is pretty shitty. Jodie's advice, burn it fucking down.
Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters are a punk rock n roll band from Melbourne. With a sound "sandwiched somewhere between The Saints and Neil Young at his most ragged". On their latest EP titled Fear/Move, Jackson sings and plays guitar and drums whilst Ryan Potter is on guitar and Deon Slaviero plays bass & organ.
All 4 tracks are great but an early standout for me is Move...
Fine And Great are a three piece from Munich, Germany, featuring three friends who have played in different bands of varying genres for years. In 2019 they decided to get together for a new band to share their combined love of emotionally charged pop punk music. Early in 2020 they released their first single Three Sheets To The Wind before lockdown happened and put a bit of a halt to everything. Not deterred, the band managed to write and record their first EP, the appropriately titled How To Survive By Getting By which was then released in July 2021 on Midsummer Records.
I am sharing the penultimate song on the EP which is titled Stole The Liquor. Fine And Great also released this track as a single before How To Survive By Getting By came out. This was a great choice as it really encapsulates what Fine And Great are all about. The song is packed with builds, great vocals, harmonies and beautiful story telling. There’s a moment in the song where Manu lets out a shout that you would most likely expect from his other band, Captain Asshole. It’s a rare moment on the EP that really showcases the pain in his voice.
You Didn't Doubt This is the debut from Leipzig's German punks Chartreux. Released on the always brilliant Gunner Records earlier this year, it's only seven songs long which, for me, makes it too stretched to be an EP, but a little short to be classed as a full album. Not that this is in anyway a problem and, as the saying goes, all killer, no filler. Mini album anyone? Further, given the band only played their first show in February last year just before everything stopped, it's obviously been a tricky time to record and release anything so I'm willing to go with the band's assertion this is their first full length record. And it's a great first full length too – DIY skate punk meets hardcore, but with a bit of gruff Gainesville influenced sing-a-long anthemic punk in the mix as well.
I am going with Harriet which is an early standout track. It's also under two minutes, but the vocals are a little more jaunty and lend themselves to a sweaty room, gang sing-along.
After a near decade-long hiatus, Aussie three piece Children Collide are back to release new LP ‘Time Itself’. After such a long time away from the scene, it can be difficult to reclaim your place in an industry that’s everchanging. Is the sound that made your name still relevant after all these years, or will the absence of new music cause a thirst for anything new? For Children Collide, it’s all about overcoming time itself.
As tight and sharp as ever, you would never have known this is Children Collide’s first release in nearly a decade. ‘Time Itself’ is a journey, with huge swerves between sounds and styles whilst still maintaining their core self. Although a little repetitive in places, some of the steps taken into noise-rock, grunge, and post-punk are gladly welcome.
I am going with one of the early singles Uh oh’ which is a beat heavy party anthem. A riff that’s as distinctive as ‘Seven Nation Army’, it’s instantly memorable and leaves a sickly sweet taste in the mouth. A gentle word of warning – it’s almost impossible not to “uh oh” along in the choruses.
In August of 2020, James Goodson, a music publicist based in Richmond, started posting songs on Bandcamp under the name Dazy. Goodson played all the instruments on that song, recording them with a sloppy lo-fi urgency, but the songs sounded huge. Dazy’s music is sticky, fuzzy, overwhelmingly catchy power-pop, and it’s got hooks for days. Goodson didn’t make a huge deal about pushing those songs out to the world, but the songs were too good to stay hidden on Bandcamp.
After a series of two-song singles, Goodson released a couple of slightly longer Dazy EPs, Revolving Door and The Crowded Mind, earlier this year. This week, he announced plans to release everything he’d made with Dazy thus far on a new cassette called MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD: The First 24 Songs. That compilation, which is already out in the world, includes three new songs, including the single “Invisible Thing.”
Hearing all 24 of these short, compact bursts of melody in a row is just crazy. This doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that an active band or artist would make. Instead, MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD sounds like a greatest-hits compilation from one of those ’90s bands that signed to a major label after Nirvana but then never blew up even though the songs all kicked ass, since they wouldn’t go along with the label’s plans to record in a pro studio. But this is all just one guy, and he’s still cranking these bad boys out. There’s not one skip on this collection; it’s nuts.
It is the single that I am going with today. This is Invisible Thing.
Chicago-based punk band, Capgun Heroes play fast, hooky pop-punk in the vein of the Ramones, Screeching Weasel, and Riverdales. They are are Joe Capgun (vocals), Matt Cappy (guitar), Andy Hero (guitar), Nick Hero (guitar), Jimmy C. (bass), and Scotty (drums) and if you like your punk rock with plenty of buzzsaw guitars, saccharine melodies and tons of energy, then they have got you covered on their debut full-length. Throughout the dozen songs that make up ‘Last Call For Adderall’, they don’t exactly hide the fact that they worship at the altar of the Ramones, Screeching Weasel and Riverdales to name but a few. But Capgun Heroes bang out these tunes with so much enthusiasm that it goes a long way.
It’s nothing you haven’t heard before and the vocal harmonies aren’t always as airtight as you’d like them to be. But honestly, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Capgun Heroes delivered a fun debut with ‘Last Call For Adderall’.
I am sharing the track "Stuck With You" which has really solid riffage that leads to a bombastic chorus with all instrumentation kicking in gear. It's a catchy enough song, but the real winner on the song are the drum fills. They feel all off and weird and wrong in a way that ends up memorable and fun. Falling off the rails? Almost, but it feels so good.
Part Time Killer are a melodic punk band from Lahti, Finland who released their latest EP at the end of August. Titled Human Syntax Error it is a great burst of skate and street punk.
Is there such a thing as uplifting emo? If your gut says no, then perhaps I Feel Fine can change your mind with The Cold In Every Shelter. The Brighton-based four-piece’s debut full-length is definitely an emotional and introspective record, but at the same time it can be incredibly joyful and even heart-warming. It’s an album which owes a lot to 90s midwestern emo, while also exuding a modern danceable indie-punk energy. Clocking in at 30 minutes, it’s a short, sweet and somehow sunny listen that’s well worth your time.
Easily the stand out feature of I Feel Fine's music is their vocal interplay. Most of The Cold… sees all four band members singing in unison; a mix of gang vocals and beautiful four part harmonies. This lends the record a real sense of camaraderie, like a group of friends singing and shouting through their pain. It’s also sure to produce plenty of live sing-alongs, as proven quickly by opener Something New To Worry About. Many more examples follow, not least in second and third tracks Elemenohpea and Million which round out the album’s strong opening run.
The Cold In Every Shelter is a triumphant debut for I Feel Fine . It’s a varied and well-crafted record that shows tonnes of promise and an impressive maturity already. Given the band have only a few years under their belt, and considering the rude health of the British alternative scene at the moment, the future looks very bright indeed for this creative young quartet.
I am going with Elemenohpea which shows off all the qualities from the album.
Slothrust (pronounced sloth-rust) is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band consists of Leah Wellbaum (vocals, guitar), Kyle Bann (bass), and Will Gorin (drums) though Brooks Allison has been on bass duty on their recent tour. Wellbaum and Gorin first began collaborating as students at Sarah Lawrence College. After performing in various school groups, the two joined to create music with a "heavier" sound. In search for a bassist, Bann later joined the band.
The name Slothrust came together as a combination of Wellbaum's former project "Slothbox" and "rust" to signify time passing.
After a number of singles they released their latest album Parallel Timeline last month. It’s a new direction for Slothrust, and one that might require a few listens to fully adjust to, but once that adjustment takes place, don’t be surprised if it draws you in for repeat listens.
I am sharing The Next Curse which features Lzzy Hale of hard rock group Halestorm. It oozes a confident attitude with powerful vocals alongside a gliding melody and gradually echoing poetic words with gritty guitars.
The long, melodramatic band name. The expansive and oft-shifting lineup. The grandiose, post-rock-infused approach to emo. The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die have always been about going big.
Their latest album is titled Illusory Walls and it finds the Philly-based unit reduced to five members: David Bello on lead vocals and guitar, Katie Dvorak on lead vocals and synth, Steven Buttery on drums and percussion, Josh Cyr (the band’s sole remaining founding member) on bass and backing vocals, and production maestro Chris Teti on “guitar, vocals, bass, and programming.” Structurally, they are as close to a “normal band” as they’ve ever been. But returning past their scene’s expiration date with a scaled-down lineup has not in any way hemmed in this band’s ambitions. If anything, this is TWIABP’s heaviest, proggiest, most audacious release to date.
TWIABP could have returned with just the final two tracks, called them an album, and no one would have flinched or complained. These are two incredible pieces of music, sprawling in scope yet densely packed with sound and self-referential Easter eggs, each one a journey unto itself. Both of them instantly rank among this band’s finest achievements. The first of the two is the track I am going with. Infinite Josh is a title that calls back to the band’s 2011 EP Josh Is Dead and music that keeps stacking upon itself, building ever skyward in prismatic echoes and choreographed lightning. “Our dreams get drowned in a river of present needs,” Bello repeats in one of the album’s most affecting metaphors. “The years float by like fallen leaves.” Bello’s poetic imagery moves along the horizontal axis, yet the music behind him keeps moving vertically, intensifying as it goes. It’s like watching all creation spiral upward into oblivion.
Moscow Death Brigade are taking their Circle Pit Hip-Hop to a new direction with a fully acoustic EP, rapping to acoustic guitar riffs and folk-inspired solos. The EP contains two brand new tracks written specifically for an acoustic guitar and unplugged versions of two of the band’s classic tracks!
Here’s Ski Mask G from MDB talking about the titular track: “The titular track “FLARES ARE BURNING” talks about something that helps people to over come desperate situations and hard times, that burns like a flare in the darkness guiding you through the ocean of challenges and problems and inspiring you to keep fighting a good fight. Since the first days of MDB our main message was a call for unity, for creating a worldwide brother and sisterhood, since we believe that knowing that you are not alone, can guide a person through the hardest times. The EP was written and recorded during the Pandemic, when things are pretty bad and we think that it seeped into our music – it came out both hopeful and uplifting, but also mostly in a minor key with a dose of anger.”
The biggest surprise album during 2018 for me, was The Last Gang’s Fat Wreck debut (but sophomore album) Keep Them Counting, so the news of the release of Noise Noise Noise has been one of excitement and anticipation.
Noise Noise Noise has many of the same elements that made Keep Them Counting such a pleasant surprise; hard hitting lyrics, Red’s distinctive vocals, catchy guitar riffs, however Noise Noise Noise wears its reggae ska punk influence on its sleeve, with Red stating she listened to a lot of Trojan Records artists in writing this album. This adds another layer and depth to the album, making Noise Noise Noise an accomplished, albeit unexpected entry into The Last Gang’s catalogue.
‘Shameless’ is a melodi earworm that will stick in your head, and allows Red to exercise her vocal chops in a way that fans haven’t experienced before.
I Like Allie are an Italian melodic punk band that recently released their album their first full length album, Rare Instances of Independent Thinking via Paper and Plastick (US), Engineer Records (UK), No Reason Records (Europe), and General Soreness Records (Italy).
If you like melodic punk rock stained with emo then this could be the release for you.
"This record was hard to make. It was born in the late hours of our Tuesday night practice. The vocals ended up taking forever because of the pandemic hitting right in the middle of their recording. But in the end, we got what we wanted even if it took us longer than expected. We're very proud of how it turned out and thankful to all the friends that helped us make this record. We are super excited that you all finally get to hear Rare Instances of Independent Thinking the way we imagined it: front to back in track order. When writing the record we paid attention to where each song was going to go. The main themes of each song are better appreciated listening to the record as a whole. For this reason, we spent a lot of time listening to the masters wanting to get every transition between songs just right. We hope you enjoy it." - Renato (Singer/guitarist)
I am sharing a track that includes some vocals for Laura Stevenson and it is called The Chaser.
I've been on a bit of a Dillinger Four kick recently and in particular their latest release Civil War as it gets a lot of flack, which is undeserved in my opinion.
In many ways they are what modern "punk" bands wish they were. Their songs are structured like 80s straight-edge hardcore anthems, but the band is generally too drunk to play them. If they only abandon a couple songs midway through their live shows, that’s considered a success. They rarely tour, much less play outside of the Midwest USA; and, if they had their druthers, they’d probably never leave Minneapolis ever again. Any opportunity that's come along that might in some way further their career, they've taken off running in the opposite direction. They are music's underachiever laureates; either dumb geniuses or genius dummies. But despite their slacker approach, or perhaps because of it, while they may not be a household name like some of their peers, they somehow became what is quite possibly the most beloved, most influential punk band of their generation. The band ushered in a new era of plainclothes punk, putting the emphasis back on substance over style - still fast and abrasive, but with a wiseass edge to it. Their four albums are brilliant, but their productions are so distorted and odd that it's like they're deliberately trying to turn people off - an open challenge to discover the perfect songs buried underneath the mess. What you'd see is exactly what they are: four working class, often intoxicated, self-professed fat guys from Minneapolis. Everything about Dillinger Four comes off as one big shoulder shrug. Hell, their official website is still hosted on Angelfire! The members routinely pass up offers to play tours and festivals that their peers would kill for. Sometimes it's due to work obligations — they all own, manage, or work at bars in Minnesota, with the exception of drummer Lane Pederson who, somewhat miraculously, is a successful clinical psychologist with three books under his belt. Other times, they refuse to miss family obligations like their kids' or wives' birthdays. But most times, they just plain ol' don't feel like it. They could have made a ton of cash, but you have to respect them sticking to their values also. Most wouldn't. They got asked about a festival and replied with "Why would we play something we wouldn't dream of attending ourselves?" Fair point...
I am sharing Gainesville from Civil War which is my favourite on the record, if not one of my favourites of all time. Because of the lyrics "And It Feels Like Summer In October, And I Hope This Day Is Never Over" Gainesville has become the anthem for The Fest, a week end festival in erm Gainesville, which happens every year in late October. It's an uplifting song about not wasting your life waiting for things to happen and instead going out and getting them yourself. This is summed up perfectly in the bridge of the song "Time Was Wasted, We're Moving Way Too Slow, Lets Go Before We're Old, Time Doesn't Wait For Me". This is a fantastic sing-a-long, fist-in-the-air song that I have had stuck in my head all week!
A friend sent me the "Nirvana Reimaged As House & Techno" album earlier in the week, which somehow sent me down a Burial rabbit hole. This is a good read on an album that as I've said previously will always hold a special place for me.
Rather than another track from Untrue, I am going for Hiders from his 2013 EP Rival Dealer. Hiders is Burial in miniature form, a sub-five-minute solo cut and one of the only true standalone tracks in his catalogue. It opens with an anthemic synth figure that starts and stops several times, returning each time with varying fidelity, before a splashy arena-rock drumbeat crashes through the ambience, stepping in time with the cascading synth figure and a vocal sample that seems to hover just slightly above everything else. A beautifully emotional piece from Burial. He uses the piano in this track perfectly.
Formed in 2016 and from Houston, Texas, Loose Nukes released a split 7" with Under Attack earlier this year and now the Black Mass demos LP which features 11 hard hitting cuts.= has come our way.
If you like your punk music to pummel you senseless then you can find the album on Bandcamp.
Bitch Queens hail from Basel, Switzerland and have been rocking out for over a decade now. If you've not been fortunate enough to discover them yet, expect a heady brew of '77 era punk, sleazy garage and glam rock. Expect catchy tunes and big choruses, expect to be impressed.
The release their new album on 5th November, will be titled Custom Dystopia and features a dozen tracks (4 of which are already streaming on Bandcamp) and it's available in various packages including black, white or red coloured vinyl.
Given the album's Bonfire Day release date, the first single is aptly titled, it's called Burn It Down...
Hailing from Falmouth, Sniff is the new project of Alex Smith from Bobby Funk & Tinnedfruit.
He's recently released a debut Self Titled EP. He's been sat on the tracks a while but they're now out there for everyone to enjoy and he's already added a new track called Horizontal Friend to Bandcamp. Gigs will follow soon once a band has been put together.
The ep features 5 tracks of indie meets punk and very enjoyable they are too. Today I am sharing the track Queer.
Thrice released their 11th studio album Horizons/East last month, the southern Californian band’s third since ending a hiatus in 2015, with an already 12th album forthcoming in the works titled Horizons/West. It's an album I've been sat on for a couple of weeks. With lots of clear influences and varying tracks, I've not been sure which to go with. You have some very Brand New sound tracks from Devil & God sounding, Daisy and even Science Fiction. There is also some that sound a bit Deftones where one could be on In Rainbows. Interesting times.
I have settled on Summer Set Fire to the Rain and it is a triumphant roar unlike anything we’ve heard from them before. Heavy and melodic in equal measures it has some great riffs too.
Born from the DIY/all-ages scene in New York, THICK make music with the raw defiance of punk and addictive melodies of pop, punchy and catchy and wildly tongue-in-cheek. With their live show typically spawning a mosh pit described by Stereogum as “more like an aggressive hug,” the Brooklyn-based trio brings an unchecked intimacy while building a deep and unshakable solidarity with the audience.
I am going with the epic speedball punk track “Your Mom” which I would probably describe as 90's influenced Riot Grrrl music. It is a track from their 2019 Epitaph release "5 Years Behind".
Elway has emerged from the Pandemic with some new music, and they’re leading the way with their latest song, “The English Wishbone”, the A-side of a 2-track single which also features 'Kronos V. Kairos'. The title is a reference to Sam Russo and James Hull of Apologies, I Have None — both “twiggy, waifish Englishmen” who remind vocalist Tim Browne of a wishbone and the B-side is possibly a Simpsons reference? This new single somehow has two(?) choruses and some absolutely ripping lead guitar, so check it out and get saved.
Melbourne punks cutters have dropped a new track and it is a cover of a song written by John D Loudermilk which was a big hit in Australia for Betty McQuade.
The Cutters' take on the song is unsurprisingly the most raucous version and it's called Midnight Bus...
Pozi are a 3 piece post punk band from London comprising of Toby Burroughs (Drums/Vocals), Tom Jones (Bass/Vocals) & Rosa Brook (Violin/Vocals).
This is the title track of the band's upcoming 5 track ep and it's a song that ags away at you slowly insinuating its way into your consciousness. Dealing with the anxiety and paranoia that can be experienced when you're in a conversation with someone on Whatsapp, it called Typing.
The ep will be out on October 29th on limited edition sea green 12" vinyl via Prah Recordings and you pre order (and listen to 3 tracks) on Bandcamp
Austerity are a three piece post-punk / dance-punk band from Brighton. They want to make nerds dance and we want to make punks join unions. They list amongst their influences the likes of XTC, Scritti Politti and Wire and are often compared to Gang of Four, A Certain Ratio and Fugazi.
A couple of months ago they released a song about social media commentary and how the likes of Katie Hopkins can make cash from spewing out mock outrage which is lapped up as fact by the easily led ("What do you pay to see them get outraged every day? What will we pay, dividing our nation every day?"). It's not without humour but is also biting. It features Rhi Kavok from Gulls on backing vocals. It's called Am I Trending Yet.
