New album: Knowso || Pulsating Gore

By / / Alternative Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

If you are in doubt whether to check out the new Knowso record, know that at different points in time Total Punk, Drunken Sailor, and Neck Chop released music by the band. Those are three outlets with prime tastebuds and top-tier scouting abilities. The new Knowso record Pulsating Gore is out now on another trusted label, North Carolina’s Sorry State Records.

The songs on Pulsating Gore are of the postpunk variety with angular guitar work, throbbing bass riffs, spasmic rhythms and talksinging as main components. While I’m not huge on post-punk, there is something about Knowso that makes them a welcome exception. A scorcher of a song like Heavy Hauler is simply wonderful, and just one example of the sheer class of Knowso’s rhythm section. Last Of the Punks, meanwhile, is almost like listening to beat poetry to a simple yet effective repetitive guitar riff.

Pulsating Gore is a record with sharp edges that walks a crooked line, but it still is accessible enough to light a fire on a broad audience.




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New EP: Dog Walk || Love And Depression

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Dog Walk is the garage psych project from prolific songwriter / musician John Walker, based in DeKalb, Illinois. His most recent release is this Love And Depression EP, featuring five tracks in which he slows down and emphasizes a sultry Mac DeMarco sound. You know what that means: jangling guitar melodies and earworm choruses through hazy vocals. Let’s dream away for a moment.

Love And Depression is out digitally (self-released), streaming only for now.

New EP: Ataque Zero || Ciudades

By / / Punk / Leave a Comment

Global punk outfit ATAQUE ZERO (Bogota) has members from South America (Venezuela, Colombia) and France. Their new 12″ EP Ciudades follows their 2021 debut. Officially, it will be out later this month, but the vinyl is now available for pre-order and the EP is streaming everywhere since yesterday.

The Ciudades EP has 5 songs that are all fast and all thrills. Ataque Zero plays straight up punk, and yet each song seems to originate from a passion for a different era of punk, like the late ’70’s kind and the ’80s American hardcore type. A double espresso to kick off your weekend, indeed.

Pre-order the vinyl at Static Shock Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: SPRINTS || Letter To Self

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

SPRINTS is a garage noise band from Dublin, Ireland, featuring Karla Chubb (vocals, guitar, charisma), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Sam McCann (bass) and Jack Callan (drums). Just under five years after their formation – inspired by a Savages gig – and countless well-received shows of their own, their debut album Letter To Self is out now. We are presented with eleven intense and convincing songs in which powerful screams and mean guitars merge, and “negative energy is transformed into an opportunity for communal catharsis and healing.” They completely live up to the first words of their earworm single Heavy (‘I’ve a simple idea, I’m going to make it stick’), but they also know how to execute relatable and meaningful messages. This is heavy but exciting music in which you can completely lose yourself, as sensational as it is urgent.




Letter To Self, produced by Daniel Fox, is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through City Slang.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || City Slang || sprints.terrible.group

New album: Accidente & Nightwatchers || Split

By / / Punk / Leave a Comment

Ears wide open when two of Europe’s finest punk rock bands team-up for a split LP. I am talking about Accidente (Madrid, Spain) and Nightwatchers (Toulouse, France) who contribute four and six songs respectively to the new release. Both bands again prove their talent for writing high energy punk rock tunes that are agressive and melodic.

They are not play-acting their anger, at the core of these bands’ music lies a politically and societally conscious heart. Consider how the lyrics of Nighwatchers’ songs for this LP were based on Yves Courrière’s journals on the Battle of Algiers (1957), “where Courrière depicts the chilling atmosphere on the city at this time and describes the «pacification» of the city’s Casbah by the French army.” Heavy material packed in catchy punk blasts? Check! Also of note are the two two killer covers. Accidente redo Colgado de tí by Alarma, while Nightwatchers blast away on J’ai Peur by Bérurier Noir.

This Split LP is ready for downloading (name-your-price) and streaming, with the LP expected later this month at Stonehenge Records.





Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: capsuna || capsuna

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop / 2 Comments

Brussels five-piece capsuna make their full-length debut with a self-titled cassette that is hand-crafted, very limited and looking wonderful. The biggest reason to consider purchasing it, though? The music. I can’t stop playing this record today.

The CAP-less capsuna play lo-fi pop songs in a slacker indie rock jacket. Their well-built songs are pure, dreamy and seductive, and brought to life by intricate instrumentation and the gorgeous vocals of Louise Crosby. Write capsuna down as a new band to get really excited about!




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New single: The Caezars || Heartache Overload b​/​w Back In The Jungle

By / / Garage Rock / 1 Comment

In the first half of the 2010s, British rock ‘n’ roll four-piece The Caezars made some waves with their mix of cinematic rockabilly and surfy garage rock, until they parted ways in 2016. Now they’re back, and here’s a promising 45 as a teaser for a fresh album that we can expect next spring. The A-side is a swinging re-recording of their 2012 tune Heartache Overload (the original version can be found on the Worth The Attention EP), the B-site is an exciting brand new track called Back In The Jungle (there also is footage of their Bopflix Sessions). A welcome return, a good start to 2024.

Heartache Overload b​/​w Back In The Jungle will be released on vinyl 7” on January 26 through Folc Records.

Add to want list: Bandcamp

New EP: Heather The Jerk || Surreal Good Fun Exciting Tape

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Surreal. Good. Fun. Exciting. Heather Sawyer (The Hussy, Proud Parents, XXX Piss) keeps repeating these four words in the opening track of the new Heather The Jerk EP. Eagerly awaited following the success of 2021’s hit-filled Cable Access TV album, Surreal Good Fun Exciting Tape undeniably impresses. Its main drawback, or in fact the only one, is its brevity. At four songs, it way too short. The super poppy synthpunk of Heather The Jerk compels listeners to rise and seek refill after refill, its delicious taste proving rush after rush without inducing any unwanted side-effects.

The Surreal Good Fun Exciting Tape is out now through Goodbye Boozy Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Richard Turgeon || Life Of The Party

By / / Alternative Rock, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

Richard Turgeon is a prolific songwriter, musician, producer and screenwriter based in San Francisco, California. Life of the Party is his seventh solo album in seven years, and we gladly accept the invitation to join the growing crowd of listeners. Not bad timing at all, because with hindsight we can conclude that this could be his best work to date. The new LP contains eleven melodic songs – dad rock packaged as power pop – about relationships, holding and letting go, urban decay and mortality. Relatable topics, skillfully conveyed. This is a solid and appealing record, a great achievement especially when you consider that the artist is not only responsible for almost everything you hear (lyrics, vocals, guitars, keys, drums), but also for recording, mixing and mastering the tracks.



Life Of The Party, written, performed, recorded and produced by Richard Turgeon, is out now digitally, and from February 2 on CD via Kool Kat Musik. Additional bass on selected tracks by Ron Guensche.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Owen Adamcik || The Owens

By / / Power Pop / 1 Comment

Owen Adamcik is a prolific grandson of ’70s punk and power pop who puts out a new record every couple of weeks. For each release Adamcik draws from a different era of punkrock’n’roll history, often under different alter ego’s, including Ickle Stardust and Owen Hollywood. His latest? The Owens, a new EP he dubs “the start of Owen Adamcik’s Power Pop Paradise.”

It’s not just the EP title, everything on this EP screams power pop. Ripping off the cover of the Nerves classic 7″, the song titles (When She Finds Out, Don’t Call On The Phone), and the make-up of the five songs – which sound cleaner, and more jangly than the average Adamcik release. The Owens EP is barely 6 minutes long, yet leaves you wanting more. This is Jack Lee, Paul Collins and Peter Case worship done right, and I can’t wait for the next installment of Adamcik’s power pop paradise!




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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