New album: The Drolls || That Puget Sound

By / / Indie Rock, Punk / 2 Comments

Snappy Little Numbers wastes no time in setting 2022 off on the right foot. The label’s first release of the new year will sound instantly familiar to fans of ’90s pop punkband Sicko. No surprise, since The Drolls are made of two parts Sicko, and one part ’90s altrock band Chinchilla. What is surprising though, is how fresh the pop punk of The Drolls sounds on That Puget Sound. It has the accomplished songwriting of a veteran band combined with the bouncy energy of a gang of newcomers.

After listening to That Puget Sound for the first time, I revisited my Sicko CDs just to check for similarities.  That in itself was a blast. It still baffles me why Sicko was overlooked by so many. Perhaps Sicko was a band ahead of its time? I think the band would have fit really well in the current wave of indie punk with bands like Radiator Hospital.

Enter The Drolls, who share enough of the DNA of Sicko to draw in fans of that band – the record even includes a reworked version of the Sicko song Rehashed. But the band adds sufficient layers and melody to enthuse the modern indie punks. Ultimately, on That Puget Sound, The Drolls sound like a mix of Sicko (but at a slightly slower pace and with more mature lyrics), The Lemonheads (but faster), Superchunk and Tenement. That’s one tasty blend!

In sum: The Drolls provide us with cool tunes, great artwork, and a perfect start to 2022!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Snappy Little Numbers

New EP: Bruiser Queen || Play The Welders

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / 1 Comment

In our monthly cover overview ‘Dusted’, I recently wrote that St Louis, Missouri all-girl punk band The Welders deserve more fame – the reissue of their only release, recorded in 1979, is hard to find – and look now: fellow citizens Bruiser Queen cover three of their testy songs.

Last year, a friend of The Welders reached out to the garage rock duo – Bruiser Queen are Morgan Nusbaum (vocals, guitar) and Jason Potter (drums) – to play a private birthday party for Stephanie von Drasek (The Welders’ singer 1975-78). That was so much fun and successful, that they’ve now also recorded and released these tracks. Listen below to their excellent, enthusiastic pop punk versions of P-E-R-V-E-R-T, Debutantes In Bondage, and S-O-S Now. Cool to hear how the originals are being done justice and get a new life.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

PS   Great news for those who want the original work in their collection: next week Bachelor Records and Rerun Records co-release The Welders’ Our Own Oddities 1977-81 LP, a new collection featuring newly remastered and improved version of the 1979 EP tracks, along with other studio, rehearsal and live recordings. Add to wantlist!

Throwback Thursday: The Groove Farm || Only The Most Ignorant Gutless Sheep​-​Brained Poltroon Can Deny Them Now

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

Raving Pop Blast! is a small DIY label specialized in garage-punk, pop-psych, lo-fi pop, and guitar based indie rock. Six weeks ago, they dropped a Groove Farm single from 1987 on Bandcamp that features a song I can’t stop playing. I am talking about Couldn’t Get To Sleep. What A Corker!

The Groove Farm 7″ was was recorded & mixed in 8 hours. It was the second release on Raving Pop Blast! and sold a not too shabby 1,500 copies – different times, right? According to the label, the songs were “inspired by listening to ‘Pebbles’ albums and The Barracudas.  It managed to annoy the so called ‘music critics’ of the time, which was pretty much the whole point of its existence.”

Talk to you later, I’m diving into a Groove Farm rabbit hole on Youtube.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: ABC Gum || Woodshed

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

I have to admit I forgot about Bloomington (Indiana) based ABC Gum. The band released a highly enjoyable record a couple of years ago on Let’s Pretend Records. It was called The New Arcade, and was full of scrappy underground bubblegum pop tunes straight from the garage.

Apparently, ABC Gum recorded a followup shortly after, supposedly slated for release by Classic Trash. That never happened, but now, seemingly out of nowhere the record (Woodshed) has surfaced on Bandcamp. Is it any good? YES! I continues on the path of The New Arcade, but the songs and instrumentation are more diverse and layered. It’s still very much underground bubblegum pop though. Hits!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Sys Malakian || Unknown Creatures

By / / Garage Rock, Surf Music / Leave a Comment

Waves roll into the new year from Mexico, waves that spawn the surf guitar sound of Sys Malakian. The cover art and title of his new long player, Unknown Creatures, reveal that this isn’t necessarily summer music. No, this is mysterious, alternative surf rock with song titles like Infinite Space, Bioluminiscencia, and Giant Squid Domain. The guitar virtuoso creates a cinematic atmosphere, where all 12 instrumental tracks hold your attention, and despite the lack of lyrics manage to conjure up stories in your brain.

Unknown Creatures is out now digitally and on random color vinyl LP through Otitis Media Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Otitis Media Records

New EP: Special Someones || Creative Ways to Make Yourself Feel Bad

By / / Garage Rock, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

I’d like to introduce you to the Special Someones. The four-piece from Massachussets is an exciting new project of Shane Dupuy. Perhaps that name doesn’t ring a bell, but Dupuy is the singer/songwriter of one of my favorite bands from the past decade: Laika’s Orbit. That band has been quiet for a while unfortunately, although Dupuy did release a solo EP in 2020 very much in the vein of Laika’s Orbit – I missed that one completely but it is GOOD.

Dupuy sums up his musical career as follows: “Power Pop is a doomed genre, but I’m gonna keep making it.” At ATW, we’re suckers for a statement like that. And Special Someones is another illustration of how Dupuy’s approach pays dividends. The six songs on the EP may a bit more edgy, scrappy, punk and rock’n’roll as Laika’s Orbit (also because Dupuy shares vocal duties with the less polished Jake Sobol, and the songs were self-recorded in the band’s practice space), but it is essentially jangly powerpop. Kickass powerpop that is.

If this was released a couple of week earlier, I’d included it in my EPs of the year list.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: World Series Hangover || Giants! Bombers! What A Sight!

By / / Garage Rock, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Given that each Autumn hundreds of thousands of disappointed baseball fans experience World Series hangover, it’s impossible to find any info on the band World Series Hangover. Believe me, I tried, but I can’t tell you anything about this band. I have to assume that their Giants! Bombers! What A Sight! EP, released mid-November is their first release.

I’ll just let the songs speak for themselves: if you like your garage pop lo-fi and with fuzzy and jangly guitars, you won’t mind World Series Hangover at all.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Angry Adults || Obsessed (With You)

By / / Garage Rock, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

Here’s an EP that could’ve made my 50 favorite short-format releases of 2021 if it was released a little bit earlier. Angry Adults are a three-piece from Helsinki (Finland), and Obsessed (With You) is the follow-up to the band’s 2019 full length Back To School. That record was more old school fast paced ramonescore reminiscent of The Vindictives. On Obsessed (With You), Angry Adults have retained that element of their sound, most prominently on opener I’m Jealous Again and on I’m Alright. For me, however, the standout tracks on this EP are where the band slightly takes the foot of the gaspedal, and opts for the melody and dynamics of powerpop garagerock – listen below. Obsessed (With You) is out now on 7″.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Recordshop X

New EP: F.A.N.T.A. || Mi Zona De Confort

By / / Power Pop, Punk / 1 Comment

Catalan bubblegum pop punkers F.A.N.T.A. make a glorious return from a four-year release hiatus with their new EP titled Mi Zona De Confort (“My Comfort Zone”). It’s a record that provides the kind of careless fun you’d normally associate with a Summer rather than a Midwinter release. I’ll take it just the same!

Opener and standout track Vengador Tóxico is build on the chord progression of Dead Boys’ Sonic Reducer. Rather than hiding the influence, F.A.N.T.A make the Dead Boys nod explicit in their intro, and than turn it into a song of their own – which I love. Icing on the cake of this EP  is a super sweet cover of the Queers’ I Can’t Get Over You. Get the 7″ now at Monster Zero Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Monster Zero

New EP: Human Tornado || Broken Bones

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

Three French dudes and one Italian make up Human Tornado. The Human Bones EP is my first taste of the Nantes (France) based band, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be my last. This is some excellent powerpop’n’roll with influences that range from garage rock to street punk. At this point in the pandemic, I’m out of touch with live music. But given Human Tornado’s talent for writing killer choruses, I have to assume that in no time they will have audiences pumping their fists and singing along.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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