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The Next Great American Novelist

Careless Moon
Independent (2020)

Insert joke about judging a book by its cover, in reference to a band who calls themselves The Next Great American Novelist -- somewhere the ego of Dave Eggers shudders. The trio of indie rockers from Brooklyn is the brainchild of lead singer-songwriter Sean Cahill, and their moniker may indeed be tongue-in-cheek enough to stand up to the irony. Cahill … Read more

Znous

Znousland 2 EP
Anti-Ta7na Records/ A World Divided Tapes (2020)

Recently my girlfriend had put on a random playlist. Most of it passed me by unnoticed, but one song made me look up. I am not even sure what caught my attention, but I do know that for one song I was completely focused on music. You guessed it, this band was Znous. I noted down the name on my … Read more

Slant

1집
Iron Lung (2021)

The pandemic has taken its toll on everyone. Even though I’ve stayed healthy, it’s stressful and that inevitably seeps into daily life. One interesting takeaway is that I think I appreciate hardcore more in 2020-21 than I have in the past decade. It’s a good time to be screaming from the bottom of your lungs.Slant is a 5-piece from South … Read more

NEW YORK JUNK

DREAMING EP
Tar Beach Music (2021)

Hand-tossed New York pizza is served traditionally with a specially blended, highly guarded-in-secrecy sauce and topped with a healthy dose of mozzarella cheese. The wedge of delight is easily folded and shoved down your gullet. Feel it as it slides over your pallet barely touching your incisors, molars, and eye teeth.Standing on any New York street corner chewing out a … Read more

Charlie Continental

Be Much Better
Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings (2020)

I dunno. Maybe reviewing a flexi is a weird idea as it’s a standalone thing. I still don’t get them: They wear out really fast; they’re vulnerable to damage and they don’t sound very good. They’re a novelty item and, in an era with fewer physical releases, somehow the most disposable format is on the rise?Anyway, I wanted to cover … Read more

Groupie

Ephemeral
HANDSTAND RECORDS (2021)

This is music for a cloudy day. Titled Ephemeral, Groupie’s debut full-length is moody and fleeting and, to me, delivers a dream-like quality at its best moments.The songs are driven by a rhythmic staccato approach that has a hushed, sing-song quality and occasionally mixes it up with a call-and-response tandem approach. The guitars establish the tone with clean, pristine vibes … Read more

Buggin

Brainfreeze
Flatspot Records (2021)

Back in the early and mid-2000s, there was a subset of seminal hardcore bands that brought a particular brand of bouncy, youth crew-forward hardcore that was unpretentious but self-aware. I’m thinking specifically of the short-lived groups that were scrappy and unsharpened, that often only played a handful of shows before disbanding and fading into scene lore. The latest offering from … Read more

Safety

Greetings From the Sunshine State
Jetsam-Flotsam (2021)

Safety are far from a new band, but they’re new me. Heck, Greetings From the Sunshine State even sounds like a debut album title. Anyway, the band has been kicking since the early 2000s – which actually explains a few of the sonic comparisons I’ll make in this review of their new EP and first release since 2015’s released Congratulate … Read more

Tribulation

Where the Gloom Becomes Sound
Century Media (2021)

This is not the record that I would want to be Tribulation's swan song. However, if that ends up being the album's legacy, I will not be surprised. The group started out as an above-average brigade of blackened rock and rollers with overt death metal influences on 2009's The Horror. Within the next four years, the band would learn to … Read more

LMI

Excess Subconscious
HANDSTAND RECORDS (2020)

Oh my god, where should I start with this one? Saying you’re something doesn’t make you that thing! Just because this band smokes weed does not make them the genre “stoner punk.” LMI process elements of hardcore, punk and stoner music. But not the parts I enjoy about those sounds. Their logo and various cover illustrations are the most honest … Read more

DeeCracks

Serious Issues
Pirates Press (2021)

DeeCracks is not exactly new to the punkrock scene. Starting out as The Cretins in 2003, rebranding themselves to DeeCRACKS in 2007 this Austrian trio has some experience under their belts. Serious Issues is their fourth full length album. Next to that they have released a string of splits and EP’s. So I am surprised that Serious Issues is the … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Dirtiest

Sovranista
Slovenly (2021)

Uno- Due- Tre- Quattro! Wowza, that’s a spicy meat-a-ball! A bubbling pot of Marky Ramone primo pasta sauce with a healthy dose of Calabrian Chillies will have this handful of Italian punk Rock traveling down your gullet, down to the cauldron of acid-eating liquids, and catapulted back up like a gigantic slingshot of acid reflux. Buzzsaw Johnny Ramone blistering cheese … Read more

Weekend Dads

Future Hangs
It's Alive (2020)

Sometimes it all comes together, even when you weren’t trying.I picked up this EP for review based, more or less, on its label – It’s Alive – which has released a lot of enjoyable records over the years. Then I thought, you know, this voice sounds like Future Girls. When you listen to the kind of DIY punk I do, … Read more

Book Review

Jim Ruland

Do What You Want - Bad Religion
Hachette Publishing (2020)

Bad Religion recently rode an extensive virtual bonanza, where they celebrated their fortieth anniversary with a series called “Decades”. i.e. four episodes where the band played songs live from each decade since the 1980s streamed from The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles and accompanied by interviews. Watching the first two episodes reminded me of how much Bad Religion coined my … Read more

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