Brutal Birthday – Commotion 7″ (Total Punk)
You can always rely on Total Punk to dredge up the ugliest punk from around the globe and spew it forth upon the world in bite-sized 7″ chunks. 2018 brought one of the gnarliest yet in the form of Italy’s Brutal Birthday, who pound out 3 simplistic, noise-addled hate ditties that are more fun than Brainbombs, livelier than Drunks With Guns, and nearly as hideous as Flipper.
Listen to Commotion on Bandcamp
Des Demonas – Bay of Pigs 7″ (Slovenly)
Washington DC’s Des Demonas debut LP slipped past me last year but I’ve been catching up with this solid 45, their sole 2018 release. With two songs of churning punk soul accented by a Farfisa organ and a righteous swagger, this will spend some serious time on the turntable.
Listen to Bay of Pigs on Bandcamp
Ecstasy – 7″ EP (Digital Regress)
The proper vinyl release of this Oakland band’s 2017 5-track digital demo is one of the tightest and punchiest hardcore records I heard in 2018 and it earned a number of spins on the turntable and iPod. With a go-for-the-throat sound that doesn’t let up, bleeding from track to track with propulsive riffs that have a Black Flag urgency played with the intensity of more recent hardcore groups like Kim Phuc. Hoping to hear more from this group in 2019.
Erik Nervous – Nervoloid 7″ EP (Digital Regress)
Another gem in the growing oeuvre of Hoosier state’s greatest bedroom punk star, Nervoloid pays proper homage to some of Devo’s deep deep deep cuts. The 5 tracks on this EP sound fantastic and fresh and hardly have a whiff of being over 40+ years of age. It’s a thing of beauty to see young blood putting some new life into proto synthpunk delirium.
Listen to Nervoloid on Bandcamp
Gumming – Human Values Cassette (Not Normal)
Vicious, knuckle dragging noise from Richmond, Virginia that has the relentlessness and mentally unstable frame of mind necessary for making this plodding strain of hardcore punk essential. Human Values features 13 punishing tracks with painfully no-frills percussion, snaking buzzbomb bass and tense, warbling guitar that’s just a few clicks out of tune. Featuring many of the songs from their 2017 8-song debut recorded with fuller production values, shifting some of the treble to their pounding rhythm section.
Listen to Human Values on Bandcamp
Hologram – Build Yourself Up So Many Times Only To Be Brought Down Again And Again 7″ EP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
The psychotic strain of hardcore that bubbled up in the 1980s midwest with Die Kreuzen and Spike in Vain has few contemporary equivalents in 2018, even though those bands get cross referenced to many current groups. Truth is, many of them don’t have the creative what-the-fuck fire that Hologram has demonstrated on this 5-song ripper. It’s creative, confusing and full of unexpected contortions, but doesn’t trade in any of those qualities at the sacrifice of velocity and fury.
Listen to Build Yourself Up So Many Times Only To Be Brought Down Again And Again on Bandcamp
Lithics – Of You, Photograph 7″ (Thrilling Living)
In addition to their cruicial sophomore LP, Mating Surfaces, Portland’s Lithics bestowed 2 more essential tracks of their austere angular postpunk on this 45. They continue to fine tune their distinct style with a detached yet catchy sound that proves the strength in a “less is more” approach that makes the most of perfectly executed, cleverly sparse songs. Mandatory listening along with their other releases.
Listen to Of, Photograph on Bandcamp
Natural Man & The Flamin’ Hot Band – 7″ EP (Neck Chop)
Channeling the spastic energy of early punk skronk from The Deadbeats’ Dangerhouse 7″ through the modern rolling punk lens of Oakland’s The World, KC’s Natural Man polish up four tracks from their demo for your listening pleasure. And what a pleasure it is, full of hooky choruses and sax blurts wrapped around jerky rhythms that would make James Chance and The Contortions slip a disc.
Listen to Natural Man & The Flamin’ Hot Band on Bandcamp
The Shifters – Just Sat Down 7″ EP (Digital Regress)
The four tracks on Just Sat Down have a scrappier feel than the tracks on their Have a Cunning Plan LP, charming with instantly catchy Fall-esque tunes that lodge themselves into your brain as head bobbers and minor key earworms of the highest caliber.
Listen to Just Sat Down on Bandcamp
Witch Jail – Music for Magic Moments demo (Self Released)
After a handful of digital singles, a single vinyl single, and a digital album, this KC band signs off with a demo tape capturing their best tracks yet. Always one of the more interesting groups around the garage punk scene, this 7-track swan song haunts their mutant rockabilly with a detached cool that grabs hold with the first track “Saucer Season Revisited” and never lets go. The non-digital cassette version also includes their first album Spellcasters Anonymous as a bonus. Snag one today and hope that Guy Slimey (aka Scary Manilow) has something else brewing for 2019 and beyond.