Alicja-Pop – I’m Here I’m There / Not Gonna Be Dumb 7″ (Feel It)
Alicja-Pop aka Alicja Trout aka the flying-V guitar ripper for The Lost Sounds, Black Sunday, River City Tanlines, Sweet Knifes and many others, may have just topped her already staggering stack of garage punk gems with this double A-side ear worm. While her previous solo efforts have been interesting, the songs have been hit or miss and have never really stuck as hard as the pair of tracks on this release have. “I’m Here I’m There” has a haunting, plaintive melody that echoes as warmly as the guitar tone, a subdued yet not quite wilting track that satisfies any downbeat garage bummer cravings you may have or will have after it wriggles itself into your gray matter. “Not Gonna Be Dumb” is the sound of someone getting up from life’s beatdowns, brushing off the dirt and fiercely standing up defiantly without falling into a rage. Alicja-Pop’s seasoned songwriting chops have never been stronger than the two tracks on this treasure.

Big Clown – Beatdown 7″ EP (Swimming Faith)
Like many my age, scarred by the clown scene from Poltergeist, Stephen King’s Pennywise from It, serial killer John Wayne Gacy, and, worst, the omnipotent image of Ronald McDonald’s manical grin bombarding my young, developing mind multiple times per day, I’ve had what you might call a distinct sense of unease around clowns. These homicidal Memphis miscreants haven’t helped matters much, even though the rough-and-tumble take on noisy punk from their demo tape somehow still managed to catch my ear. Beatdown contains their first crimes committed to vinyl, gleefully blasting 7 misanthropic tracks on an unseemly 33rpm 7″ record, taking their guitar tone to the next level with an overdriven buzzsaw roar that makes this record even more threatening… and appealing. There’s a tight snap to the lead track “Everybody” that’s unexpectedly catchy, as is the diverging guitar attack on “Knew” that gives the impression of a song ripping itself in two; fitting for lyrics that give the impression of being a victim of a sexual assault. Other horrors include feeling powerless (“Weak”), tales of a frog man (“Frog Man”), dental work (“Teeth”), being broke (“Broke”), and feeling like a clown (“Clown”). The last track, “Thirsty”, ends this frightful slab with a rumbling, percussive bombast that’s just a few quivering red EQ levels away from devolving into a full on Merzbow outburst, gloriously distorted and fucked up, and ending with the screamed lyric “So when I drink your blood, don’t beg me for mercy mother fucker, I’m thirsty!” So yeah, nothing short of a nightmare, and yet it’s a nightmare I seem to revisit frequently.

Chalice of Vomit – Inner Sanctum of Sorcerous Perversion Demo (Moonworshipper)
This unpleasantly-monikered band of Canadians answers the eternal question: “What would black metal sound like if it were performed by Man Is The Bastard doing a tribute to Darkthrone covering a lethal set of doom metal classics in the rumbling drugged-out noise rock style of Rusted Shut?” Of course, that question only gets to part of the matter, as the following question would invariably be “and how could it actually make sense, in like, a severely fucked up way?” Contained here on their second cassette of sonic depravity, C.O.V. (sorry, the name really does bother me, as I’m sure is intended) hurls out a sonic palette that hits all those reference points and more, with an assortment of sick riffs underscored by a grotesquely down-tuned bass and a skilled drummer who’s able to plod along with flair, hurl some blastbeats, and throw up a serious free jazz freak out, like the one that sustains the squealing noisefest of the track “Dead & Ready”. Even better, other sonic surprises await, like the oscillating analog electronics that emerge throughout this beast and sets/unsettles the mood in the excellent intro and outro tracks, “I” and “II”. While this all may sound like a gimmicky sort of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to music making, it’s all in the service of establishing a grossly heavy vibe that blows weaker metal away.

Chat Pile / Nerver — Brothers In Christ Split 10″ EP (The Ghost Is Clear)
Was lucky enough to catch the tail end of this pair of midwestern noisemakers’ tour last fall which cemented my opinion that it takes a certain environment for this type of psychosis to bubble up from. In the case of Nerver, that environment is Kansas City, which in 2023 broke it’s all time homicide record despite the rest of the country’s murder rate dropping 13%. For Chat Pile, it’s Oklahoma City, the absurdist tornado magnet home of the Tiger King and the ghosts of a homegrown act of terrorism. Each band throws down 2 tracks each for this petite 10″ slab (also available as a single-sided 12″ with a silkscreened B-side, limited to 666, wink wink) that are all prime specimens of each band’s particular strain of noise rock. Chat Pile’s tracks have that gigantic Godflesh beat and bass rumble lurching along with sickly, haunting guitar textures and vocalist Raygun Busch’s slurred rambling, which never fails to evoke an unsettling and dark sense of humor. Nerver dish out the type of ugly riff fest that KC’s known for (think Bummer, Coalesce, Season to Risk), without ever letting off the gas. Add Will Mecca’s killer artwork and a variety of vinyl colorways, some mind-altering substances, and, voila! You’ve got one of the best EP releases in 2023.

Consensus Madness – Consensus Madness 7″ EP (Iron Lung)
This 7-song 7″ EP debut serves up an irresistible and amped up form of Dangerhouse-style punk with razor-sharp punk riffs and a vocalist who evokes the defiant snarl of The Avenger’s Penelope Houston and the haunted yelp of 45 Grave’s Dinah Graves. The Illinois quartet isn’t just aping a sound though, as the blaring Will Killingsworth mastering perfectly captures the band’s electrifying energy with a thoroughly modern hardcore spin on the killer riffs, all coming right at you with dizzying velocity. Really looking forward to hearing more in 2024, as all 7 of these tracks are highly catchy and listenable.

De-Bons-En-Pierre – Card Short of a Full Deck 12″ EP (Dark Entries)
Dark Entries has made a name for itself with a slew of great reissues ranging from the excellent Bay Area Retrograde compilations, Algebra Suicide, Clan of Xymox, Nervous Gender, and Patrick Cowley’s epically amazing work from gay porn soundtracks of the early ’80s. The label has also released some stellar releases from more contemporary groups like Figure Study and Crushed Soul, as well as this slab of dark electronica from the mysterious Chicago duo known as De-Bons-En-Pierre. This 6-banger EP follows two essential EPs also from the label, continuing and perhaps even perfecting the sinister beat-heavy cloud of misanthropy and 2020s anomie found in those previous 12″ dispatches. Whereas the earlier EPs had a small dose of dark humor to them, like samples from an interview with a Vietnam vet and tiny, heavily xeroxed sketches of intimidating faces skulls on the cover, Card Short gets a bit more grotesque in terms of the sound (more incessant beats, distorted samples, and a ghostly audio haze) and image (high contrast photos of deformed faces and trashy black and white B-movie gore) to pummel the listener with a nonstop barrage of malformed minor key techno dread. Plus, it’s got a great beat you can dance and/or stumble to!

Enzyme – Golden Dystopian Age 12″ EP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Every year needs an off-the-rails nutzoid take on hardcore that pushes the genre to its limits, nearly causing it to burst at its uptight seams. In 2021 it was Urin; 2022 it was Mutant Void; for 2023, it’d have to be this fucked-up rager from Melbourne’s Enzyme, which takes elements of crusty d-beat and jams it through a weirdo egg punk filter loaded with an barrage of unexpected synth blurps and guitar effects for a dizzying assault on the ears. The lyrics assault as well, with nuggets like “I hope you slowly choke to death, chewing on the fat!” sung with shouts and death metal growls trading off and searing into your eardrums to echo long after this 15 minute outburst completes. Surveying your local record store’s punk section, you’re likely to come across plenty of stark black and white record covers from Discharge-worshiping d-beaters who put their efforts into following a 40+ year-old template. It’s great to finally hear one that’s put some effort into fucking with that template and making it sound vital again.

Lasso – Ordem Imaginada 7″ EP (Sorry State)
After two solid 7″ EPs of raging Brazilian D-beat hardcore, Ordem Imaginada mutates Lasso’s already solid sound with more haunting and anthemic riffs, while losing none of the velocity or ferociousness. The band continues to keep hardcore interesting, adding fresh fire to the punk flame with this third 7″ EP installment of their urgent blend of Dead Kennedys riffs with Rudimentary Peni’s tangled labyrinth of dark, twisting song structures and early SSD muscle and urgency. The cover art is mutating too, from ink drawn characters writhing in scenes with Nick Blinko-inpired madness, to more chilling, symmetrical faces that stare at you with an unnerving intensity. Add up the 7 memorable songs here to Lasso’s already top-shelf output.

Smirk – Smirk 7″ EP (Under The Gun)
Peep a few NFZ best of lists from the last couple years and it’s pretty much a given that any Smirk release will warrant some sort of mention. So of course, for 2023, this self-titled EP earns a mention simply for Nick Vicario’s ability to craft such high quality, insanely catchy earworms with that distinctive warbly guitar tone that always satisfies. The first track, “Polyrhythmic Ticks” had me searching for the play speed, as it’s impossibly warbly and sounds like it should be played at 33rpm instead of 45rpm, but alas it is in fact that speed and gloriously odd sounding, which kinda sums up what Nick Vicario has been able to do with his Smirk project: create moody garage punk that feels just a little “off” in the best way. Hoping to see many more Smirks in 2024.

Wayne Pain & The Shit Stains – Heinous Action CS (Sludge People)
Between this and the 4-song 7″ doozy on Italy’s Goodbye Boozy label, this Kansas City nuisance led by living legend Ken Kupfer (Spread Eagles, Fag Cop, Wet Ones) had a productive year in 2023 and managed to press their punk filth on both wax and cassette, nearly a decade after the group’s notorious Feed The Dog demo. Both are worth a listen, if you can stomach this kind of aural abuse, and I’m only talkin’ bout the tape here cuz it’s got more songs and not as hard to find. Plus it’s got more samples to help set the mood, including an epic preamble to a girl fight and the crushing defeat that frame the lead track “I’m Gunna Fuck Your Wife”. Most songs are of the “I Gonna…” or “I’m Not Gonna” variety, as raw and defiant as a stumble bum with an erection, splurting such gems as “I Don’t Wanna Go In Your Nazi UFO” and “All I Do Is What I Want”. One of my favorites, their Bandcamp digital “hit”, “Tits from the Shadows” get a permanent home here for the post-internet Mad Max scumdog era, just ready to be played back in all its trebly, hissing glory on a janky boombox in a post apocalyptic wasteland near you. If you’re ready for some seriously heinous action, look no further.

ALSO NOTEWORTHY

Dan Melchior – Covers EP (Self-Released)
Data Unknown – CV Demo (Self-Released)
Golpe – Assuefazione Quotidiana 7″ EP (Beach Impediment)
The Hand – Vol. 5 (Self-Released)
Missouri Executive Order 44 – Seventeen Dead in Caldwell County demo (Self-Released)
Powerplant – Grass 7″ EP (Static Shock)
Rotary Club – American Tower 7″ (Iron Lung)
Sarin Reaper – Noxious Black Vomit Demo (Dirtbag Distro)
Science Man – Mince’s Cain 7″ EP (Swimming Faith)
Wayfarer – Night Shift Flexi (Decibel)