Punk

New album: F.A.N.T.A. || Me aburro (Vol. 2)

Sixteen reasons to forgive unnecessary punctuation

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Bands that put dots between every letter of their band name. I never had a problem with it until I started writing about music online. Now it has become a tiny personal inconvenience, meaning I only bother copy-pasting those dots if I care enough about the band. Fortunately, F.A.N.T.A. make that very easy.

In fact, we’ve written about this Catalan band before. They belong to that wonderful Spanish tradition of punky power pop and melodic pop punk that keeps the country flooded with touring American and UK bands year-round. There is clearly something in the water over there. Catchy, energetic rock-’n’-roll still gets treated like an essential life force instead of some faded relic from the bargain bin.

Me aburro (Vol. 2) follows, naturally, Me aburro (Vol. 1) from 2024, only this time with ten extra songs added to the mix. Sixteen tracks deep, F.A.N.T.A. just keep throwing hooks at you until resistance feels pointless. Everything moves fast, bright, and full of life. The songs are all sung in Spanish, but honestly, that barely matters. Song titles like Downstroke, Circle Pit, and Tinder already tell part of the story, and with a title like Expectativa vs realidad, even my terrible Spanish is good enough to understand that the expectations here are absolutely met, maybe even exceeded.

This is pure summer fun from a band that clearly still believes punk rock should leave you grinning like an idiot. And yes, by the end of the record, even the dots feel earned.

Keep an eye out on Snap! Records Spain for the LP release.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Snap!

New single: Charlie Continental || Snow & Rain b/w Untethered

Melodic comfort from the other side of heartbreak

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For the endlessly active Chuck Coffey (Spells, Snappy Little Numbers), Charlie Continental has become the perfect outlet for his solo songwriting impulses. We covered his 2016-2021 singles collection last year, and what stood out most was how naturally his songs fit alongside the kind of bands he later championed through his label. Chuck Coffey has always felt like the real deal, full of love and care for the music of others and putting that same passion in his own music.

But this new single may be the most personal thing he has released yet. As some of you may know, Chuck lost his wife and soulmate Feb in 2024. Snow & Rain and Untethered deal directly with the aftermath of that loss. These songs come from a very real and painful place, but they still carry the melodic warmth and heart-on-sleeve catchiness that define the best Charlie Continental material. They are sad songs, no doubt about it, but they never feel hopeless or closed off. More than anything, they feel like songs written by someone trying to reach out and connect. It may be full of scars, but Coffey’s got a huge heart. And when Chuck sings, “You’re not facing this alone,” you know these are true words.

Very limited edition 7″available now through Snappy Little Numbers.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: Cosmic Joke || Referee b/w Agnostic (One Size Fits All)

Skateproof hardcorepunk with melody baked in

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Cosmic Joke’s new 7″ for the legendary Revelation Records only gives you two songs and barely four minutes total, yet it still feels worthy of raving about. We’ve said it before, but this L.A. five-piece have a perfect grip on that sweet spot between classic ’80s American hardcore and the more melodic, skate-rat side of ’90s punk rock.

Referee leans harder into the hardcore side of the band, fast and tense with enough bite to leave marks, while Agnostic (One Size Fits All) opens things up into something more melodic and instantly skate-ready. The whole thing feels like the kind of record you throw on three times in a row without thinking about it. More than just an appetizer for the upcoming LP (expected Fall 2026), this single already rips on its own terms.

Referee b/w Agnostic (One Size Fits All) is available for preorder now.


Add to watlist: Bandcamp || Revelation Records

New album: Trash Culture || Migraines

Trash Culture kick the door back open

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Released in the late 2010s, Trash Culture’s debut Just A Ride was a genuine throwback punk gem. Seven years later, the band return out of nowhere, jumper cables in hand, ready to shock dead punk hearts back to life.

Migraines (available for preorder through Take the City Records) is filthy and snotty in all the right ways. The songs hit with real frustration and bite, but never lose sight of the fun in tearing things apart. It makes perfect sense that the release bio references the KBD and Bloodstains compilations because Trash Culture sound like they could have landed on either of them naturally. The difference is that instead of delivering one killer track, they unload a whole record’s worth. Raw, loud, catchy stuff.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Four new releases from The Goodbye Boozy assembly line (Lightning round reviews)

A bunch of rapid fire reviews of new releases by Jacket Burner, MK Ultras, Retail Simps and xray xeroxx

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Like love, As Richard hell taught us way back, Goodbye Boozy records come in spurts. This week brought four of them, and since every single one deserves space on the wantlist (or should I say Theeee Wantlist), it felt only right to throw them together into one lightning round review post.

Jacket Burner || Pig Vomit Sessions
An absolutely revolting title for an absolutely filthy record. Pig Vomit Sessions is bare-bones garage punk recorded with the apparent goal of using as few takes as humanly possible. Everything sounds like it’s falling apart in real time, which of course is exactly why it works. Pure basement damage.

MK Ultras || MK Ultras
Probably the fastest and catchiest of the four releases, MK Ultras balance speed-freak punk energy with a real knack for classic punk hooks underneath all the racket. Cleveland punk done properly: loud, fast, and no unnecessary sophistication.

Theeee Retail Simps || Theeeee Retina Lamps
The “permanently out of tune” outsider rock-’n’-rollers Retail Simps add a few extra e’s to their band name and somehow that tells you exactly what this thing sounds like. The A-side leans harder into punk velocity, while the B-side sounds like a shopping cart full of instruments getting pushed down a staircase in perfect rhythm.

xray xeroxx || Off With Their Heads
Anthony K’s prolific punk project recently got torched by Maximum Rocknroll, and honestly, this new 7″ feels like a direct response. The A-side is xray xeroxx at its most furious, with choruses shouting “off with their heads” and “leave me alone” like built up frustation unleashed. Flip it over and things get weirder, artsier, and more playful. A nice reminder that Kapfer’s chaos is never just one-dimensional. Keep ’em coming, Anthony!

Add to wantlist: Goodbye Boozy Bandcamp

New EP: Second Born || Free Heaters

This Leeds-based band lets the melodies shine through your blown-out speakers

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Let’s go a few floors below lo-fi for an EP that is absolute fire. Meet Second Born, a band from Leeds who just dropped a three-song release that Lost Wisdom says fans of Ovlov, Teenage Fanclub, and Island of Love should immediately latch onto. The band themselves, well they describe it as “West Midlands emo.” Personally, my first thought was Marked Men trying indie rock while recording everything live-to-tape in a room with half the equipment breaking down.

Whatever label you slap on it, these songs are gloriously blown out. Total noise, buzzing amps, rough edges everywhere, yet the melodies punch through so hard they refuse to stay buried. Like flowers growing through cracked concrete, or hooks fighting their way out of a collapsing practice space wall. A seriously hypeworthy first impression.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Bart and the Brats || Pushin’ Your Luck

This Dirty Water Records comp is the perfect gateway drug into the Bart and the Brats universe

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Given that we’ve written about Bart and the Brats roughly eight (!) times before, there is a pretty decent chance you’ve already crossed paths with at least one of their songs. And honestly, for some people, one song will probably be enough. The budget-bin garage Ramonescore on display here is not exactly designed for mass appeal. But for others, every new Bart and the Brats release immediately becomes a “take my money now” situation.

Well, Dirty Water Records just released the perfect entry point for the in-betweeners: the curious newcomers, the casual fans, or the people who kept saying “I should really buy one of these records someday” and somehow never did.

Pushin’ Your Luck rounds up fifteen of the best Bart and the Brats tracks so far, all remastered for this release, plus one unreleased cut called Pissin’ in the Wind. And funnily enough, that previously shelved track is one of the more accessible songs here. Still scrappy, still dumb in the correct way, but catchy enough to sneak into your brain and stay there.

As for the rest? It is exactly the kind of glorious mess longtime fans signed up for: punk rock that sounds like it was mixed in a garage with the door half falling off. Or, to quote some earlier write-ups from this very site:

“old school KBD punk blasts that are ass kicking loud”

“The songs are still the right kind of moronic, but with extra layers of awesome added in”

“quality punk with a late ’70s UK vibe, a touch of early Ramones and a total lack of polish and shine”

“designed to make you want to dive straight into a mosh pit, limbs flailing and adrenaline high”

Honestly, I still stand by those words.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Dead Stilettos || Bodge Job

Mancunian chaos built for sticky floors and blown speakers

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Just look at the cover art and album title, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of ​​what to expect from the debut full-length from Manchester five-piece Dead Stilettos. Bodge Job feels like a bar fight between swaggering garage rock, facetious egg punk, and sleazy post-punk. The nine tracks are scrappy and smart, loud and wild, and packed with enough humor and adrenaline to rattle your speakers and your nervous system in equal measure. Built on fuzzed-out riffs, wiry synths, restless rhythms, and the kind of self-assured, sneering delivery that feels uniquely British, the band sounds like the most fun you could have in a sweaty basement.



Bodge Job is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Sour Grapes Records. Featuring Jack Preston, Ollie Martin, Brad Smith, Lucas Tams, and Gareth Allatt.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: S.U.G.A.R || III

Alien Snatch strikes again with another filthy winner

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In the Alien Snatch universe, releasing killer garage punk records almost feels less like a career move and more like a law of nature. Cause and effect get blurry over there. Are you already a cool band with a dangerous new greasy/sleazy/filthy batch of songs? Alien Snatch will probably sniff you out eventually. Or maybe it works the other way around: once you land on the label, it suddenly becomes physically impossible to release anything lame. Either way, expectations are not exactly handled delicately in that camp. And if you cannot be bothered naming your records? Fine. Just slap a number on it and move on.

So here is III, the third LP from the Berlin trio, following S.U.G.A.R. (2021), II (2022), and that absolutely combustible split with Blowers last year. If you already liked this band, III is not about to change your mind. But if you somehow slept on them before, this feels like the right entry point. To my ears, this is the sharpest and most fully realized version of S.U.G.A.R. yet.

The swagger is still intact. The sleaze too. But there is something tighter happening underneath the grime this time around. Like the band spent a little more time sharpening the blades before swinging them around. Do not mistake that for polish though. This thing still rolls in smelling like stale smoke, engine oil, and trouble. But the songwriting feels more deliberate, the execution meaner, and the whole record more consistent from start to finish.

And even at just eight songs, III absolutely delivers the goods. No filler, no dead air, just nasty garage punk rock-’n’-roll with enough sneering melodies to leave bruises.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Peachy || Body Horror

An emotionally charged debut that refuses to look away

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On their debut EP Body Horror, Peachy capture rage, vulnerability and razor-sharp wit into five songs of blistering indie-punk. The Magandjin/Brisbane (Australia) four-piece excel in scuzzy guitars and shout-along choruses (“I don’t want anybody else, I don’t want anybody else,”—from infectious opening track Gutted), sometimes singing at an impressive pace (“You can take her body, if you’ve got her mind”—from Her Bones), but not shying away from a vulnerable ballad (“Wait for me // I’m unsteady // Yeah”—from Wait4me). This is the kind of music—tight, expressive, and convincing both musically and vocally—that demands to be experienced at maximum volume and with full attention. It’s powerful, intense, and urgent.

Beneath the controlled structure of jagged riffs and cathartic hooks is a powerful throughline of reclaiming autonomy, refusing to stay silent, disposable or unseen. The lyrics unpack the emotional and physical toll of existing in a world shaped by misogyny, manipulation and insecurity, moving between intimate anxiety, fractured relationships, and experiences of harassment and objectification. The rightly biting commentary on womanhood and survival is most evident in the masterfully constructed and impressively worded anthem 13 (“Sick of excuses, the big and small abuses that were made”), which deserves a video as mandatory education.



Body Horror is out digitally (self-released). Featuring Melita Collins (rhythm guitar, vocals), Madi Morris (lead guitar, backing vocals), Georgina Joyce (bass, vocals), and Eliza Heath (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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