New album: TEKE::TEKE || Shirushi

Get ready for an explorative and spiritual psychedelic trip. You can get lost in Shirushi‘s Dali-style cover art alone, but its cinematic and eclectic music is even more enchanting and mystic than that: a mix of classic Japanese balladry, surfy post-rock and folky psychedelia, with poetic Japanese lyrics melodically and conjuringly sung or whispered. This is the impressive debut album by TEKE::TEKE, a Montreal-based 7-piece featuring traditional Japanese instruments and a trombone alongside fuzzy guitars and a rhythm section to create a sound reminiscent of 1960’s / 70’s era psychedelic Japanese soundtracks. ‘Shirushi’ means ‘signs of great changes to come’, and that could just be the case for this band after this release. Out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP trough Kill Rock Stars. The video for Meikyu gives you an idea of what to expect, but I advise you to immerse yourself in the full album.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Kill Rock Stars

New EP: The Martial Arts || Getting Stranger By The Moment

Retropop easily can become too campy for my taste, but if it’s executed well, it can be quite delightful. I count Glasgow band The Martial Arts’ new EP (Getting Stranger By The Moment) in the latter category. The main draw of the EP is its lead single Bethany, which frontman Paul Kelly (of BMX Bandits, The Primary 5 and many more) colors with just the right sepia tones. If you are looking for an escape from your 2021 blues, give this one a spin.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Last Night In Glasgow

New album: Serials || Mediocrity

Are you into poppy garagepunk like Outtacontroller, Mean Jeans, Mind Spiders and Jacuzzi Boys? If so, you may want to take note of Serials, a solo project by SF East Bay area based Dennis Stimac. He wrote the 16 songs off his new LP Mediocrity in a four month period (nov 2020 – mar 2021) at his tiny home recording studio. Stimac plays (or has played) in a  variety of bands that are more hardcorepunk oriented, and with Serials he records music that is “a little more mellow and not bound by any specific genre. Although its definitely punk rooted.”

Also, his recording ritual is quite unusual:  “I have a TV in my studio and I leave it on the Investigation Discovery channel while I write and record 24/7. Its true crime, murder type shows. Weirdly, It helps me write. I even leave it on while recording, I just turn the volume down.” This may explain some of the dark undertones in the music of Serials (“Mercury is about a super realistic dream where I got shot and killed in a 7-11 convenience store. The last thing i saw before everything turned black was laying on the ground staring up at the mercury flourescent lights flickering.”), but most of the songs on Mediocrity sound rather upbeat.  Take  a sample of some of my favorites off the album:  Bed Bugs (a song “about a girl withdrawing from drugs”), Stick Figures Gone Wild, Sleeping Pills And Antifreeze, and1994.


Mediocre is out now digitally, with an extensive backcatalogue of Serials to dive into at Bandcamp. Stimac also run a YouTube channel with local punk music and skateboarding videos from his hometown, Concord, Ca.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Anxious Pleasers || Anxious Pleasers

This Anxious Pleasers EP. Wow. I just can’t seem to stop playing it. Anxious Pleasers are a threepiece from Hamilton, Ontario. It’s the brainchild of guitarist/singer TJ Charlton of the TV Freaks (such a cool band), with Nathan Burger on drums (also of TV Freaks, and Flesh Rag) and Matt Ellis on bass (of Flesh Rag, Plasticheads, The Vapids, and his recent solo project you should definitely check out). The line-up sets a high bar in terms of expectations, but Anxious Pleaser effortlessly surpass those. My fingers automatically turn the volume up to 11 on songs like What Do You Care About and DUH! This is an exhilarating and insanely catchy punk record.  “We wrote and recorded the songs right before covid hit. We played a few shows and everything got put on ice but we decided to release it. It was recorded by the band in our old rehearsal space and mastered by Kenneth Roy Meehan,” Matt Ellis explains. It’s currently digital only, with all proceeds donated to Hamilton Encampment Support Network. A  very limited cassette release is available for pre-order, but I am confident punk labels are lining up to do a vinyl release as well. The future of the band is less certain, given the members’ other responsibilities and one band member moving west to Vancouver.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Throwback Thursday: Lochness Mobsters || She Bit Meh

In 2015, Austin Town Hall released War Tuna, a fun garage / surf rock debut album by American three-piece Lochness Mobsters. Six years later, the catchy standout track She Bit Meh is still a real party banger, one that makes you long to see these kinds of bands live again.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs 

New EP: Licking Rainbows || burp.

You know, there is an incredible amount of new music coming out all the time. And if something is really great, we actually want it in our collection. That is also the idea of this blog: sharing the records that are “wantlist worthy” and linking to where you can buy them. Normally we only write about “available” releases, but sometimes there are exceptions to that rule, simply because the songs are too cool to hide in a hard-to-find corner on the internet. A good example of this is burp., the debut EP by Swiss power trio Licking Rainbows (Livio Arcuri on bass / vocals), Kilian Zompa on guitar, and Tim Poggi on drums). These first 4 original tracks – the result of a year of creation, dedication and collaboration – are influenced by the 60’s sound of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Cream, to which is added a bit of modern energy. The band told me that a physical release is unfortunately not planned. So this is one you can’t buy but really should listen to; watch the video below for standout tune I Don’t Lie or check out the full EP on YouTube or Spotify.

New album: Lucas Aaron || Domino

American singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist / recording engineer Lucas Aaron loves mid-60s mod and power pop, influences that he mixes in his own work with a more contemporary feel of garage rock and psychedelic folk. If you listen to the 11 original songs – written and performed entirely by himself – on his new (digital) album Domino, all kinds of names come up: King Tuff but more mellow, The Byrds but more rocking, or Bare Wires but more hi-fi. Either way, it’s an entertaining record with the heart in the right place. Listen below.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Mononegatives || Apparatus Division

“All in all, this is a highly original and fascinating take on punk rock meets new wave that’s dark and discordant yet also full of bouncing energy.” I don’t like copying a label’s press release, but this description of Mononegatives excellent debut LP Apparatus Division is spot on. Mononegatives give listeners a lot to digest. There is so much going on in each song. From cool guitar riffs, to start stop dynamics. From synth parts to Dick Dale-esque surf guitars. From dissonant noise to catchy melodic parts. Mononegative deconstruct rock-‘n’-roll music and create their own thrilling brand of garagepunk on Apparatus Division. Rather than hastily browsing this record (i.e., listening to only parts of some of the songs) I recommend listening to complete songs to fully appreciate the band’s sound. Out now on Big Neck Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Pomegranate Tea || Life Is Getting So _______

Life Is Getting So _____? Pomegranate Tea lets you fill in the blanks on their (I think?) debut EP. Matt Baillargeon, Reece Ashley Adam “squid” Chenier describe their sound as “new wave emo-pop pop-punk whatever.” Fortunately, I’d listened to the EP before reading that, because Pomegranate Tea definitely does not sound like the overproduced boyband version of poppunk I associate with that description. Life Is Getting So _____ is definitely melodic, but does not sound polished at all, and there is a contagious energy to the six songs on the EP. Pomegranate Tea do not limit themselves to genre boundaries, and in this case that pays off in a very diverse yet coherent (and very layered for a threepiece) sounding collection of songs. I am finding it hard to come up with comparisons for Pomegranate Tea. Perhaps they sound a like a more mathy version of Alkaline Trio? A more straightforward version of Braid? A more accessible version of Cap’n Jazz? A more dynamic version of Promise Ring? I’ll let you fill in the blanks. The cassette for this release is already sold out at Baron Tapes, but I am pretty sure this is not the last we’ll hear of Pomegranate Tea.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Century Egg || Little Piece Of Hair

“Do you want to dance? Do you want to smile?” The rhetorical questions posed by the Canadian-based indie rock band Century Egg are answered by their uplifting music. Shane Keyu Song, Robert Drisdelle, Matty Grace, and Meg Yoshida form a colorful band boasting a diverse range of influences and artistic traditions. They wrote songs that blend garage rock, mandarin pop and post-punk, sung in an intriguing way, to urge you to be free. Their EP Little Piece of Hair is out now digitally and on 12″ vinyl through Forward Music Group. Listen to the two standout tracks, Do You Want To Dance? and Ring A Bell (a cover of き ゃ り ー ぱ み ゅ ぱ み ゅ). They make you dance, they make you smile.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

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