Bikini Cops – Three 7” (Drunken
Sailor/Televised Suicide)
Early ‘80’s So
Cal meets some mid ‘80’s DC early alternative. Three is in reference to the band third release. This 7-inch is 6
songs of Circle Jerks meet post-Minor Threat DC blasts in 10 minutes. Bikini Cops, hail from Australia and do
not solve crimes that we know of, have had many a Black Flag/Circle Jerks LP
make it’s way across the Pacific, which hasn’t hurt them at all. – Ed Stuart
Chiller – Chiller LP (Dirt Cult)
Feral Trash part
2 or Chiller, origin story, you decide. Eric and Illisha played in Feral Trash,
but for Chiller they recruited members of Mother’s Children and Black Union.
Chiller is a mix of Wipers and Marked Men with male/female vocals. Pop that
veers to its darker minor chord fueled opposite end without losing its melody.
Chiller relies a lot on the vocals to supply the melody much like the early
Thermals did while rhythm continues its Marked Men momentum. – Ed Stuart
Dboy – Prove Your Love (Live In Belem) LP (Self-release)
If you believe
what you read, Dboy either hails from Welland, Canada or parts unknown. Dboy is
into their secrecy, only communicate through their representative and live by
their 13-point manifesto. Musically, Prove
Your Love is Misfits and Hives meets Stooges. Live In Belem isn’t really live, but I’m thinking you might have guessed
that, but in their defense how many live albums are truly recorded live? – Ed
Stuart
Down and Outs – Double Negative LP (All
In Vinyl/Yo Yo/Waterslide)
Hailing from
Liverpool is never going to be an easy feat considering it’s the Beatles
hometown. Luckily, Down and Outs don’t bother emulating them. The Clash, Stiff
Little Fingers mixed with Leatherface, Lawrence Arms and Gaslight Anthem,
influence Double Negative’s songs.
Down and Outs mix the personal and political lyrically over crunchy melodic
guitars, raspy vocals and energetic bass and drums. – Ed Stuart
Erik Nervous – Assorted Anxieties LP (Drunken
Sailor/Neck Chop)
Assorted Anxieties is more a compilation than straight LP.
Drunken Sailor has complied several of Nervous’s EP’s, cassette releases and
comp tracks to fill this LP. Nervous plays a trashy indie punk sort of like
Wire/Fall meets Minutemen that leans toward Rip Off in the production value,
but doesn’t lack energy. – Ed Stuart
Last Gang – Keep Them Counting LP (Fat
Wreck)
Last Gang’s
debut LP, Keep Them Counting is full
of Rancid/Distillers/Dance Hall Crashers inspired tunes. It’s easy to forget
how influential Rancid actually is on a lot of modern bands. Last Gang, hailing
from Los Angeles, has been around for ten years with a breakup/hiatus in the
middle, but without much recorded output to show for it. Last year, they
released Sing for Your Supper as a
teaser for this upcoming LP. Girl fronted punk with raspy vocals that fits
right at home with other Fat bands like Bad Cop Bad Cop. – Ed Stuart
Magpie – Picasso On A Log EP (Kool
Kat)
In a lot of ways
this sounds like a lost release from the mid ‘60’s. Magpie mixes California pop
like the Byrds, melodic Kinks and bits of folk vocal harmonies together. Magpie
hails from Somerset and features members of Bad Detective and Bronco Bullfrog. Picasso On A Log, shows Magpie are all
in on the sound and songwriting. – Ed Stuart
Marriage Material – Making The Worry Worth It Part 1 7” (Dirt Cult)
Los Angeles
three piece featuring members of God Equals Genocide, Spokenest, Pinned in
Place, and Summer Vacation. The band released a demo earlier in the year and Making The Worry Worth It is the band’s
second release. Melodic Material plays gritty melodic Midwestern punk
influenced pop-punk that isn’t afraid too get a little arty. – Ed Stuart
Outtacontroller – No Echo EP or 7” (Jarama)
Halifax, Nova
Scotia’s plays a slight fuzzed out punk pop that falls somewhere between
Ramones and early Mean Jeans. No Echo
is nothing, but fun, which shouldn’t come as a surprise it’s on Jarama. This is
the follow up to their LP, Television
Zombie from 2016. Outtacontroller plays four songs under 10 minutes, which
is a good recipe for a band playing ’77 infused punk pop. – Ed Stuart
The Ravagers – Drowning In Blood 7” (Spaghetty
Town/No Front Teeth/Gods Candy)
You know what
you’re getting into when a band features members of RMBLR and Biters and this single
doesn’t disappoint. It’s been a few years since we heard from Baltimore’s The
Ravagers, but Drowning in Blood will
make you forget that. The Ravagers play a Dead Boys, Turbonegro, Backyard
Babies punk ROCK. Yes, emphasis is on the rock and the guitar playing with
Hagen (RMBLR) and Gabs (Biters) doesn’t shy away from leads. The A-side is more
rock and the B-side, Suzi (Has An Uzi),
is more punk like early Damned meets Dead Boys. Supposedly there is an LP on
the way; hopefully we won’t have to wait another two to three years for new
material. – Ed Stuart
Razorbats – II LP (Rob Mules)
Hanoi Rocks
meets Hellacopters/Backyard Babies meets punk touches. Before the band released
II, Norway’s Razorbats changed their
singer and bass player, but instead of packing it in they decided to keep
going. Razorbats have their musical toes dipped in the hard rock and punk
world. “Social Rejects” mixes both, but other songs go for the hard melodic rock
jugular like “Dead Boy City.” Is hard rock punk or rock punk a sub genre yet?
If not, Razorbats could heed the call. – Ed Stuart
Spring – II Cassette (Sabotage)
Spring is from
Northern Germany and released a demo in 2015. II is the follow up to that demo with five new songs. There isn’t a
whole lot of info I could find about them. Spring plays a sludgy, dirty lo-fi
mid ‘80’s hardcore. – Ed Stuart
Syndrome 81 – Beton Nostalgie LP (Sabotage)
Since releasing
their first demo in 2013, France’s Syndrome 81 has been gaining steam in the French
punk scene. Beton Nostaglie sounds
like ‘80’s UK, think Blitz, mixed with Oi!, but Syndrome 81 also adds some dark
melodic pop to not be one trick ponies. The LP is sung in French so it will be
tough to join in on the gang vocals, but fans of French Oi! won’t mind. Beton Nostalgie is a collection of songs
from their demo, Litovsk split, UVPR compilation song, Desert Urbain, BMAB single serie and Urban
Savage split. – Ed Stuart
Various Artists – Scrap! LP (Secret
Mission)
Six new Japanese
bands (Car Crash, Middle Edge, Centipede, Black and White, Dials and Loudmouth)
are featured on this Secret Mission LP. I should really say six singles for the
price of one. Most comps give one track by each band, but Scrap! gives each band three tracks to shine. Much like Secret Mission
releases the music ranges from ’77 punk to KBD to mod pop. If you’re a Secret
Mission fan, this is worth checking out. – Ed Stuart
The Whiffs – S/T LP (Drunken Sailor)
For a band that
borrows their band logo from Stiff Records, has far more US influences than UK.
Prior to starting, half the band had never met before. Kansas City’s, The
Whiffs feature members from The Conquerors, Wet Ones, Nubiles and The Caves.
The Whiffs take Tom Petty, Big Star, Dwight Tilley, and The Nerves to make one
of the finest LP’s you’ll hear this year. Originally titled Take A Whiff, Drunken Sailor re-issued the
LP with the S/T title, but the title
doesn’t change a thing. The Whiffs mix jangly, gritty guitars that give the
right amount of toughness and melody. Okay, they aren’t that tough, but what
they lack in toughness The Whiffs make for in melody. – Ed Stuart
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