Are you in the mood for a “drop everything you do, clear out your living room, play it loud and have a private pogo party” kinda record? Look no further than Judy And The Jerks’ Music To Go Nuts.
On their latest album, Judy And The Jerks (Hattiesburg, Mississippi) strike the absolute perfect balance between sounding authentically punk, moving at hardcore speed, and having melodies that will make the pop kids blush. Music To Go Nuts is a 16 minute hand grenade of sheer awesomeness and joy. Have a taste of Buford, one of the most exciting tracks I’ve heard lately, and try California as well – arguably the poppiest track on the record.
Available for streaming now, vinyl expected in September through Thrilling Living. WANT!
After a 3 to 4 year hiatus, Halifax punkrockers Future Girls return with a new EP on Tarantula Tapes and Dirt Cult Records. Future Girls currently are a four-piece – Matty Grace (Guitar/Vocals), Heather Grant (Guitar/Vocals), Becca Dalley (Bass/Vocals), and Dewayne Shanks (Drums). Year Long Winter was written in the early stages of the pandemic, and recorded after Becca Dalley (a bandmate of Matty Grace’s Cluttered) joined the band. The five songs on Year Long Winter are powerful sad bangers, catchy despite their sad undertones. One particular strength of Future girls is that three quarters of the band take on vocal duties, each with their own unique sound. After listening to all five songs, I can’t help but exclaim: Yeah, this is how you do punkrock!
The Belgian/French rockers of VISION 3D have released their new album Hypnose, featuring eleven savage songs that are somewhere between garage-trash and post-punk. These are musicians who are well attuned to each other, and who have managed to capture their live energy wonderfully. The tempo is very high, but it’s amazing how much musical variation the tracks – sung in French – hold. The vocals are intense and sincere, the guitars sharp and persuasive, the drums and bass deliver great rhythms. This is an overwhelming LP, and its title – translated: Hypnosis – isn’t an over-promise.
Hypnose is out now digitally and on vinyl LP, co-released by Six Tonnes De Chair Records, Rockerill Records and Belly Buttons.
Holy shit! You would think that punk and gospel are opposites, but Cherie Cherie’s Ann Seletos aka Sister Ann (vocals, drums, screams) and The Freaks of Nature’s Daniel Shircliff aka Brother Daniel (vocals, guitar) prove that these can be combined very well. As The Christian Family they mix influences from Sister Rosetta Tharpe and The Staple Singers with the sound of mid 60’s garage punk and girl groups. On their first full-length album The Raw And Primitive Sound Of… you can hear eleven tracks of lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll trash – devil music with an edifying message – that is indeed raw and primitive. Although there are references to a higher power in songs like Who’s Gonna Catch Me, Time To Pray and He’s Comin’ Down, most of the lyrics are about everyday worries. This is a record that will appeal to fans of raucous outsider music, regardless of whether they are believers or not. If gospel punk is a genre, this is how it should be played.
The Raw And Primitive Sound Of The Christian Family is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Voodoo Rhythm Records. It consists of ten original songs, and one cover – of The Jiants’ 1959 hit Tornado, written by Andy Anderson & Jerry Hedges.
Two years ago, Bristol’s (UK) scrappiest and poppiest punkrock band Cosmit entered the scene with a three-song single – I liked it so much it made my singles of the year list. Its follow up, the five-song It’s Cosmit EP, is finally here.
Two years and 8-songs in, I’ve yet to hear a Cosmit song I don’t like. Go Go Go alone makes this EP worth the purchase. On the song, Cosmit sounds like the Northern Soul version of Marked Men, and their harmonies provide an absolute dopamine rush. Or what about Bad Luck, a song that sounds upbeat with sweet backing choirs, but actually is kinda dark. “I’ve seen it all before || It never rains it pours || If it wasn’t for bad luck i wouldn’t have any luck at all.”
In addition to Northern Soul, Cosmit cites Motown and ’60s pop as major influences on their brand of punk rock. This could have resulted in a mess in less capable hands, but in the case of Cosmit (featuring members of RVIVR, Austeros, Toodles & The Hectic Pity, and the co-owner of Specialist Subject Records) it’s an exciting blend of HITS! HITS! HITS!
We are very proud to premiere The Brightside Of It All, the sophomore studio album from Toronto-based folk-punk musician Greg Laraigné, now exclusively under his last name as LARAIGNÉ. The LP will be out this Wednesday (May 11), digitally and on limited edition smokey clear vinyl, through Snappy Little Numbers (North America) and Shield Recordings (Europe), but you can already stream it in its entirety here. I don’t know what music you expect based on the impressive cover art by Gian Andrea Signorell, but this has an Americana kind of sound, honest and heartfelt. [Post continues below]
Singer-songwriter Greg Laraigné released his first full-length Story Tellers, True Believers in 2012. Although he has toured extensively with his songs, he has focused more on his second passion as a widely recognized tattoo artist. Luckily for us, he managed to record this new album – at the end of this post he shares how the record came to life, but let’s start with our early impression of The Brightside Of It All. Ten years in the making, the seven tracks are well thought out and well produced. The sound is bright, and the beautiful instrumental accompaniment functional, melancholic and expressive. The powerful vocals and personal lyrics take the spotlight though: stories that hit hard. For example, listen to Thirty-Nine, which is intense both musically and lyrically, magnificent in all respects.
This is roots music but with a punk rock feel – a combination we really like, but this release excels in the genre. It’s convincing, timeless music with its heart in the right place.
If there’s one challenge to being addicted to discovering new music while broadening your musical pallet, it is this: how do you keep up with all the genres you grew up loving and still love? For me, hardcore is one of those genres I have kind of lost touch with throughout the years. But every now and then, a release grabs my attention that gets me so excited I wonder why I don’t spend more time in this corner of the musical landscape. Exhibit A: Turnstile’s Glow On, which was my AOTY last year. Exhibit B: The new Praise album All in A Dream.
Then again, even though hardcore may be the point of origin for both Turnstile and Praise, both bands have so much more to offer. In the case of Praise, the most notable influences comes from the ’80s DC hardcore scene, and when I first heard Praise’s 2014 record Lights Went Out, it felt like hearing Dag Nasty for the very first time. It had that same level of excitement for me. That comparison still holds 8 years later, especially on the title track – I should probably also mention Rites of Spring and Embrace, or more recently As Friends Rust; the record also includes a great cover of Hüsker Dü’s Keep Hanging On. But Praise have firmly built their own sound throughout the years, and central to that sound is their willingness and fearlessness to branch out to more melody and different styles. It’s probably no coincidence that Daniel Fang drums in both Turnstile and Praise, and in Angel Du$t as well: three bands that do not sound alike at all, but have an equal level of exploration and creativity.
Ultimately, All in A Dream is bouncy, dynamic and colorful. It’s a record to get excited over, to rock out with, to sing and scream along to. It’s the kind of record that makes you feel happy you’re alive and can’t wait to share with your friends.
Last December we proudly premiered Night Court’s debut album Nervous Birds! One, just in time to crack my favorite records of the year. We explained back then, and it’s kinda self-explanatory from the title, that Nervous Birds! One was always meant to be followed up and is in fact part of a duology. Now, within 6 months, part two is already here. Given the sheer awesomeness of part one and the fact that Night Court recorded all songs of the duology in three manic, hyperfocused and creativity bursted sessions, the only way part two would suck is if they’d put all their best songs on Nervous Birds! One.
But no, you need only one round trip of Nervous Birds!Too to realize the band has spread the wealth evenly. That round trip only takes 15 minutes or so, in which Night Court treats us to 13 additional sweet lofi indie/punk/pop nuggets. With most songs recorded in one or two takes at most, the spontaneity of Night Court is contagious and one of the band’s biggest assets. It certainly helps that the band throws a hook at you every few seconds and restrain their songs to the interesting parts only. I wish more bands took that approach. Night Court is always soaring, never boring.
In short, if you’ve liked Nervous Birds! One, you will like Nervous Bird Too (too). If this is the first time you hear Night Court, I sorta envy you. There is such a joy in discovering this band. Below are some portals to the Night Court universe, arbitrarily picked because, let’s face it, most of them are hits.
Nervous Birds! Too will be out on Cassette through Snappy Little Numbers and Debt Offensive. Fingers crossed that 1) Night Court’s duology ever gets pressed on vinyl (or CD at the very least), and 2) this won’t be the last release by the magic combination of Jiffy Marx, David Soul, and Emilor Jayne.
Probably House in London, Ontario is a legendary venue for punk shows. It’s a rebuild-the-living-room, bring-your-own-drink, all-proceeds-go-to-the-bands kind of endeavour.
In tribute, Faster And Louder Records just released a 7″ single with five Ontario bands with a history of playing shows at Probably House. Contributing one song each, the bands (Dave Rocket and The jobbers, Wired Wrong, School Damage, Bad Words and Probably) offer a throwback to ’90s punkrock and pop punk.
The Probably House Tribute 7″ single includes an insert with all of the venue’s past show flyers. What a sweet release to help keep the torch of DIY punkrock alive!
Unsatisfied with limiting themselves to one band or one specific sound, or so it seems, Chubby And The Gang keeps branching out in different entities. Among the list are ATW favorites Boss and The Chisel, but the list keeps growing. The newest side-project is The Hazmats, which takes a whole different sonic direction. The label states about the band: “they’ve clearly been reaching for their Teenage Fanclub LP’s, C-86 comp and The Clouds 7″s.”
Sure, The Hazmats two song 7″ single (out now through Static Shock Records) arguably is the most poppy of before mentioned acts. What stands out though is the top notch songwriting. This is how you do fuzzy and punky indie pop. More of where this came from please!
