London based melodic punks BarCreeps are streaming their album, “Human Remains”, via Dirty Sushi Records. The 10 song affair is the follow up to EP “Battle Axe,” which came out last year.

The guys recently have begun playing live shows again after a lineup change (swapping out bassists), and have reported good marks on their recent shows with Bombpops and Astpai!

Check out their album “Human Remains” below!

[Read more…]

Dallas punk rock and rollers with an upright bass, Prom Farts Unknown (…did I get that right?) have announced they are playing Fest in Gainsville, FL this year and will be heading out on a 14-date tour leading up to it. Check out those dates below.

The band has recently signed with Dang! Records and released an EP, Trucker Speed, to follow up there 2016 release, Bruiser, both available for streaming here. [Read more…]

Dallas dirty skate-punk pee-wads, Noogy are headed back on the road for a west coast tour.

You can check out those tour dates below.

Find out more about Noogy here. [Read more…]

Punk rock and roll/soul band Nowhere Fast out of Louisville, KY with NYC ties has a new album in the works. Aeonian, which releases October 5, 2018, is the culmination of over a decade of touring, recording, and playing shows around the DIY circuit of America’s Heartland.

Their first full-length Trials  dropped in 2013 and blends passionate punk-rock with harmonious rock and roll instrumentation reminiscent of Sunny Day Real Estate at points, and with Aeonian peaking its head 5 years later the band has had time to tighten and redefine that sound to produce what they are calling their “most mature and nuanced work to date.”

They’ve been kind enough to leave us with a little teaser, “Lifer” which you can stream below. [Read more…]

In this heated, post-election climate, I see street punk making a comeback. It’s political, aggressive, and catchy—but it’s also by and of the people. It just goes to show, if you wanna be heard, try being loud. Still, it’s not a style I hear a lot of, and I still tend to associate it with the old-guard studs-and-spikes crowd. So, color me surprised when I heard that members of the Shell Corporation and Success were forming the Drowns and playing gravelly, catchy street punk. It made sense, but it was also a total sucker punch. But, there I was, intrigued.

I know Rev from Success. He’s a killer songwriter, with a great voice, and some intense guitar chops. These Red Scare-ready instincts bring us massive choruses and heartfelt messages—but with the Drowns, I was ready to see this mode of operation translated into something rougher, more direct. It’s the meeting of two worlds, isn’t it? The punk rock of new (practically a supergroup!) playing a defiantly old-school style. View From the Bottom, from the concept alone, was immediately interesting.

The album opens with “Eternal Debate,” a call-to-action as well as in-your-face criticism. It captures the Drowns approach to street punk perfectly. Loud, direct; classically punk and catchy as all Hell. The Drowns bring to mind the blue-collar anthemics of Cock Sparrer, dragged spitting into 2018. It’s also on “Eternal Debate” where we get a taste of the Drowns’ lyrical direction. Lines like, “maybe we could solve the problems of today, people with no food and no place to stay, instead we’re locked in eternal debate,” point to a perspective implied by the album’s title: a view from the bottom. The Drowns are making a record for the underclass, the folks who get stomped on by those with a view from the top. I don’t know how many records I’ve reviewed this year that I’ve described as having a blue-collar perspective, but as pressure from the top starts to squeeze the people at the bottom, it’s nice to hear no one’s going quietly.

Songs like “Where’s Bobby,” are less political, but still paint a picture of a bleak urban landscape. Its chorus is a nostalgic joy, a callback to the days of early punk where the refrain was a simple phrase, repeated. In this case, “Bobby’s back on heroin!” Still, it’s appropriately dark, and it’d be unfair to paint it as View From the Bottom’s fun barn-burner. The chorus is direct and confrontational, mincing no words—and because of that, it sounds off like a gunshot.

But if you do want a good old fashioned barn-burner, the title track fulfills the need to scream along and throw up some fists. “View From the Bottom” is a fast-paced number with some catchy guitar licks and coughing vocals. It’s a posi fuck-you, with lyrics like “go ahead and see if I care, I got some shade here,” as well as “this view is looking pretty good from the bottom!” It’s loud, adhesive, and proud—and it makes no apologies. The final track, “Darkness,” ends the album with a message of hope, delivered in a distinctive, yet beautiful croon. What else do we need to know in dark times except that we’re not alone? “Darkness” unites rebels, outcasts, and artists—and gives them promise for a better tomorrow.

View From the Bottom is refreshingly punk. In a time where the genre can mean any of a dozen things, the Drowns set themselves up as true north. It’s a back to basics punk record where politics, filtered by the perspective of blue-collar songwriters, takes center stage. This is ten tracks of angst, anger, and community that doesn’t drag for a second. The Drowns bring their message, set their fire, and jump the fence before the sirens get close.

4/5

For fans of Ducky Boys and Old 97s, Boston punkers, Art Thieves premier a passionate new anthem for the next generation of brick throwers. Here is a near-month-early exclusive of “The Untouchables” off the new album Russian Rats which releases September 14, 2018 on State Line Records, home to Ducky Boys. You can pre-order Russian Rats here.

“The Untouchables” is a call to action in resolve, and a plea for justice for those who deserve it.  A working-class mantra for anyone fed up with patriarchal discrimination and subsequent exploitation of not only our mothers and sisters but the subservient masses as a whole, “Middle fingers up. Let’s fuck this government the way they fucked us up. This generation is untouchable.” Go ahead and sing along with the hook… Gen X’ers in the back, included. We get the feeling this songs’s meant for all the punks, with its intimate, small-venue quality, and the welcoming atmosphere of a smoke-stained old bar-room. Slap it on the jukebox and crank it up!

Of the new record the band says, “This moment feels important, and important moments should have a soundtrack. A good one, though. One that sounds like some good punk shit that couldn’t quite crack the mainstream in the 80’s.” Russian Rats will be Art Thieves’ first release since their 2015 debut, For Free!, which, impressive in it’s own right is streaming here with a few other teaser tracks off the new LP, and sounds as if the band has honed their sound quite a bit. No longer relying on the extra instrumentation of the saxophone and organ present on their last album, the songs of Russian Rats gravitate towards a more broken down rock and roll texture of grinding bass lines and pick slides taking preference over tracks laden down with layers on top of layers, good for grabbing your friend in a headlock and trodding around, fists raised up, in a sea of bodies.

Hear “The Untouchables” here first, below.
[Read more…]

Gold Coast punks Fake News have released new video for their song “20 Failures,” which comes from their new album, EWWWW!, that was released on August 8th.

You can check it out below.

Fake News last released No Walls in January 2018. [Read more…]

Canadian harcore act Fucked Up have released a new video for their song “Normal People,” which comes from their upcoming album, Dose Your Dreams, that is set to be released on October 8th via Merge Records/Arts & Crafts. 

You can check it out below.

Dose Your Dreams is the bands’ first full length since 2014’s Glass Boys. [Read more…]

Chicago pop punks Belmont have released a new video for their song “Pushing Daisies,” which comes from their debut self-titled album that was released on August 17th via Mutant League Records.

You can check it out below.

Belmont last released their Water Weight/Step Aside single in 2017. [Read more…]

New Jersey indie/punk trio Aspiga are streaming two new songs from their upcoming album, Dragged Through The Years, that is set to be released on September 7th via A-F Records.

You can listen to “Beautiful Wounds” and “Searching” below.

Aspiga last released What Happened To You? in 2014. [Read more…]