Posts Tagged ‘Punk’

Various – Marc Urselli’s Ramones Redux + Best of Redux

Posted: 5 June 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Magnetic Eye Records / Redux Records – 6th June 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Magnetic Eye have released a few of these ‘Redux’ tribute albums now, each of which has come in two editions, and each of which has taken a different approach. Whereas the Meantime Helmet releases offered a standard and expanded version, for example, others have presented an album on one version and a ‘best of’ as a companion. And in all instances, they’ve managed to score some outstanding names as contributors. This time around, it’s the Ramones’ eponymous debut which is accompanied by a ‘best of’ set as a counterpart, and the project was ‘masterminded and curated by New York City and London-based Italian-Swiss audio engineer, sound designer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and Grammy winner Marc Urselli’ – hence the titles.

Mondo Generator, Napalm Death, Ufomammut, Arthur Brown, David J, and Voivod are among the big-hitters featured here, but as I settle down with a cold pint of Oranjeboom, I contemplate the need for a Ramones tribute – or, more specifically, another one. There have been a few, perhaps most famously 2003’s We’re a Happy Family, which featured The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Marilyn Manson, Green Day, Garbage, U2, Metallica, and The Pretenders, among others, and there are so many tribute acts out there, too, one has to ask ‘is this not overkill?’ Well, no, because that would be Motörhead, and what’s more, with a lower tier of ‘name’ contributors, it feels more authentic, somehow. I’m not saying U2 aren’t fans of The Ramones, but they feel like they’re on a par with the fans who bought a T-shirt in Primark and only discovered they were a band after the fact. Casuals, in other words.

Some might say that the debut album doubles as a ‘best of’, and there’s a case for that, given that every single song is a pure classic. Mondo Generator kick off the debut album covers set with a roaring ‘ONETWOTHREEFOUR’ before launching into ‘Blitzkreig Bop’, and it’s a faithful but fiery, fizzy rendition, the guitars like jet engines on what you could only describe as a proper punk blast.

Daníel Hjálmtýsson and Mortiis offer an altogether different take on ‘Beat on the Brat’ – slowed down, moody, gothic, a bit theatrical, a shade menacing, and yet somehow accentuating the pop currents which flow through this, and indeed, all Ramones songs. Boots Electric, with the help of none other than Wayne Kramer, push the pop to the forefront

Ufomammut bring the metal and convert the sub-two-minute surf-pop ‘Chain Saw’ into a six and-a-half minute grind that’s downtuned, dense, and dirty. It’s also absolutely brilliant in its execution. Napalm Death have enlisted Thurston Moore for their take on ‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue’, which is a minute and a half of speaker-shredding thrash nihilism, and absolutely perfect.

The Ramones weren’t only punk progenitors, but purveyors of precise and often perfect pop songs, and this pair of albums represents the fullness of their influence (still not saying they. didn’t influence RHCP or U2., but…) Arthur Brown and The Berserker’s take on ‘I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You’ is crazy, and absolutely perfect.

Voivod rope in JG Thirlwell for their hell-for-leather yet hooky as hell take on ‘Zero Zero UFO’ which opens the ‘best of’ set. And there are some corkers, with a slowed-down, heavy psyche yet oh-so-pop take on ‘Pet Sematary’ by Impostor Cult with Amy Tung Barry Smith being exemplary. So Hideous’ twangin’ take on ‘The KKK Took My Baby Away’ is one of the most radically different interpretations on the album, although Kayo Dot and Ihsahn push ‘Teenage Lobotomy’ in the most unexpected directions, while David J and Paul Wallfisch push ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ to a soporific seven minutes. With a super-sparse arrangement, it sounds as if they’ve achieved their wish before entering the studio.

What these two albums illustrate, more than anything, is that The Ramones wrote superlative and truly classic songs, with earworms galore. And as tributes go, these albums do feel perfectly fitting.

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Listen: ‘Phone Call’ by Death Pill

Posted: 21 May 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Two years on from their sensational debut, Ukrainian ‘Riot Grrrls’ Mariana, Anastasiia and Nataliia, aka Death Pill recently announced that they are back. Locked and loaded with a mighty set of tunes on their highly anticipated second album SOLOGAMY, which is … as they put it. ‘A bold exploration of personal empowerment’.

SOLOGAMY is fierce, heavy and melodic, and is set to land on June 20th, 2025 (New Heavy Sounds). New single ‘Phone Call’ is probably the most accessible Death Pill track to date. Very catchy, with a terrific arrangement, cleverly put together, it’s a brilliant slice of … well … pop.  You might call it ‘pissed off pop’ something Green Day or Foo Fighters wished they’d written … a new genre if ever there was one. The band comment,

"This song is just a real sad love story when no one calls you back. 

When you are waiting for a call from someone you care about, time starts to drag. Every minute feels like an hour, every moment feels like an eternity, and every sound of the phone makes your heart freeze. You check it several times, even though you know the phone is on silent mode. Thoughts fill your mind, “What if he forgot?”, “What if he doesn’t want to talk?”, “What if he has someone else?”.  

These doubts and fears turn into a real game of mind, where you become your own harshest critic. The agony of waiting can be overwhelming. You begin to notice how it affects your daily life: you can’t concentrate at work, you get distracted when talking to your friends, and even simple pleasures seem less significant. Thoughts about the call become annoying, like a fly that won’t leave you alone.  

Every time the phone vibrates or the screen lights up, you hope to see his name, but disappointment comes again and again. Waiting for a phone call is a fragile emotional state that touches the deepest corners of the soul. It requires patience and humility, but it can also teach us to appreciate the moments when the connection does happen. When the long-awaited call finally rings, all the suffering seems worth it – if only for a moment. That moment can be so sweet that all previous agony is forgotten. Waiting for a call is not just an emotional roller coaster; it is a reflection of our vulnerability and desire to be understood. The desire to be needed by someone.

We are opening our hearts, hoping that someone else is also willing to share the journey with us."

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Listen: ‘Demonomics’ by Cash Bribe

Posted: 3 May 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Brooklyn hardcore outfit Cash Bribe are back with a vengeance, unveiling their third EP Demonomics on June 13, 2025, via Futureless. This marks the band’s debut release with the label, and they’ve never sounded more vicious, precise, or relentless.

The EP’s title track, ‘Demonomics’, is now streaming everywhere—an absolute sonic assault that sets the tone for what’s to come.

Hear it here:

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Fawn Spots – Ersatz

Posted: 2 May 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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4th April 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

I miss Fawn Spots. I didn’t especially like them at first – musically, they were lo-fi, energetic, and thrilling, but they came across as bratty, even a shade twatty, at times, notably in my recollection as coming across as somewhat ‘off’ and disparaging when supporting The Twilight Sad at The Duchess in York. I miss The Duchess, too. I suppose, like Fawn Spots at the time, it had its faults: the pillars weren’t great for views at times and the sound was often a bit crap, but it brought some top-notch touring bands to York, with The Fall, and The Psychedelic Furs’ DV8 performance being clear standouts.

But I came to feel an affection for Fawn Spots: they evolved, in every respect – from a raw, messy two-piece cranking out some frantic racket, to a proper band, with some proper songs – although not too polished. They never got so slick as to lose their edge. It’s easy to take bands who are always out on the local circuit for granted, and it’s only when they move on – whether it’s because they call it a day, or move on beyond the local scene – that their significance on a personal level becomes apparent. You go from seeing them every other week either headlining or supporting a bigger-name touring band and it all being so much ‘yeah, whatever, cool, but this is the sixth time this year, and it’s only May’ to suddenly, they’re absent.

After a clutch of indie and self-released EPs and bits, and some touring, and with the release of their critically-lauded debut LP From Safer Place in 2015 on Critical Heights, which received coverage from Record Collector and Louder than War Fawn Spots seemed to be on the brink of something. And then… they vanished, and we forgot about them because we were busy with our lives and all the other bands we were listening to, and all the rest.

This posthumously-released album has been lurking in the vaults for some time. As they write – and at the same time highlighting their wildly eclectic influences – ‘A few months after recording this album the band ceased to exist… The product of a period of obsession with Arab Strap, Angels of Light, Lungfish and the song ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ by Crowded House.’

I love Angels of Light, but don’t love nostalgia: however, while cooking the other day, I flipped to the 80s music day on the Smithsonian channel, and heard ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ – a song I own on 7” – for the first time in ages, and was reminded just how good it is. It’s not the first thing that comes to mind listening to the fuzzing, buzzing guitar blast of Ersatz.

‘Fortunes’ is a bit Fugazi, a bit Girls Against Boys, gritty, driving, sturdy, while ‘Blossoms’ is dynamic, textured in the way Nirvana pushed soft and chiming vs max overdrive.

The album has energy, that’s for sure. It also has some dense riffs and some keen melodies. Some are keener than others, it’s true, and the hollering ‘Daylight Runner’ feels a bit emo with a dash of mathiness. The same could be said of ‘Strangers’ but the early Dinosaur Jr vibe rescues it., while ‘Faint House’ has the post-punk-with-a-commercial-edge feel of White Lies. Quite liking White Lies, and bearing in mind the timing and context, I have no issues with this, but a decade on, I can comprehend why some may be rather less enthused.

Listening to these songs now, I feel I’d have appreciated them more contemporaneously. Buzz does count for something, it seems, as does being in the moment. If they’d sustained their momentum, if they’d remained current… things would likely have been very different. And perhaps some sounds do date, until nostalgia resurrects them. What goes around comes around, but sometimes it takes time.

Winding the clock back, the songs on Ersatz are well-realised, and played with real energy. But this an album that is, essentially, of its time. It’s not so much that its dated, as that is just feels… not entirely confluent with the zeitgeist of 2025, not entirely gripping in the sense that you need to check your back yard to feel safe.

Had it been released in 2015, and given the right press push and media uptake – because. let’s be honest, leading horses to water is only part of the equation when it comes to getting new bands heard – Ersatz could have propelled Fawn Spots to the next level – not because it was their best work, but their most accessible, and their most zeitgeisty work. And it has hooks: the post-punky ‘No Source’ is bold and guitary, but catchy, too.

Ersatz is now a historical document. It feels anachronistic, and doesn’t really sit anywhere in 2025. But it reminds us not only of how things were, but what could have been… and how we miss Fawn Spots.

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Watch: ‘White Guilt Atrocity Quilt’ lyric video by Leftöver Crack

Posted: 20 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Punk legends Leftöver Crack have released their new single, ‘White Guilt Atrocity Quilt’ along with the B-side, ‘Brad Sabbath’.

The band says, “The new song by Leftöver Crack is about the history of white self-proclaimed Americans and the injustice, displacement, genocide, rape, disease, enslavement, human commodification and trafficking, cruelty, brutality, exploitation, broken promises, and vilification of the native Indigenous population, as well as the populations of African countries, for the benefit of the privileged class and rich “elite” whites—who behave no differently than the Europeans that forced them to seek a new world where they could live in peace, practice their religions freely, and avoid paying financial tribute to British royalty, only to demand that the subjugated peoples of this country fatten their own oligarchic coffers and bow down to their own demented dynasties, all while presenting a facade of caring about those destroyed in their scorched wake. ‘Brad Sabbath’ is about the mistakes inherent in following gods and the minced words used to justify so much grisly atrocity.”

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Gans / Mince / Richard Carlson Band – The Fulford Arms, York, 8th April 2025

Posted: 12 April 2025 in Live, Reviews
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Christopher Nosnibor

This isn’t one of the three bands for six quid efforts I’ve been raving about, but three bands from out of town for eleven quid is hardly extortion, even on a Tuesday night, and Gans might have much social media presence, but they definitely have some traction building. Bearing in mind that it’s the Easter break and many students at both of the universities have gone home, the place is noticeably busy, and there’s a conspicuous number of really tall bastards in tonight, young and old. And while I’m inching towards being an old bastard myself, I shall never be tall, but will be eternally aggravated by the towering twats who step to the front row in a venue with a stage that’s barely a foot high. That’s just a personal peeve, and there’s not much you can do about biology.

But there is something you can do about being a decent band, and I’ll admit my expectations are pretty low at the start of the set by the Richard Carlson Band, from Sheffield. It’s not the sax per se, but the slightly awkward presentation, the smooth jazzy leanings, my instinct to summarise this as ‘nice; and move on… but while their set is jazzy in part, it’s also varied, in places evoking Ian Dury, in others Duran Duran circa Seven and the Ragged Tiger… ‘Barrymore’s Pool Party’ goes darker and calls to mind Girls Vs Boys and The Fall, only with sax. They’re a five-piece with two – or three guitars, the third guitarist sometimes does keyboard, and they’ve no bass, instead finding the second guitar being run through a pedal that turns it into a bass. It’s unusual, and their set is both interesting and well-played.

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Richard Carlson Band

Mince, from Leeds, are also a quintet, and appropriate for their name, serve up some fairly standard meat and two veg punky fair. In fairness, they do at least do it with some energy. A few songs in the whip out a choppy guitar that’s pure Gang of Four and for a moment they’re ace. Then it’s back to sounding like The Godfathers crossed with generic indie / punk. The pace picks up as the set progresses: the standard doesn’t, descending into shit shouty indie. The last song, their upcoming single, is the best they have by a mile. It’s solid, but they’ve set the bar low.

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Mince

Gans are something else, and that something is superlative. Hard-hitting two-piece acts have become a prominent feature of the rock scene in the last decade, with Royal Blood blowing open a fair few doors before blowing their cool in spectacular fashion. Being rather less preoccupied with classic rock and more about raw punk energy, Gans are more reminiscent of Slaves before they sold out to the Man and became Soft Play. Gans set out to entertain, and absolutely give it their all, making a massive bloody racket in the process, with only bass and drums. I say ‘only’, but that bass sound is immense, and the bassist can’t keep still for a second: he positively vibrates with energy, while the drummer… kicking out rolling rhythms that have the glammy swagger of Adam and the Ants and The Glitter Band, he plays hard and with style: watching him, I continually return to the question ‘how does the man breathe, let alone sing while doing this?’

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Gans

Although they’ve only released five songs to date, they’ve got plenty more in the bag, and there’s no filler to be found here. They are truly a joy to watch, and they maintain the energy from start to finish throughout their high-intensity forty-minute set. Catch them in a small venue while you still can.

Listen: ‘Death Tax’ by Cash Bribe

Posted: 11 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Brooklyn bruisers Cash Bribe are back with their third EP, Demonomics, dropping June 13, 2025, via Futureless. This marks their first release on the label, and they’ve never sounded louder, sharper, or more furious.

Leading the charge is the blistering first single, ‘Death Tax,’ now streaming everywhere.

Listen now:

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Of the single vocalist Joe Dahlstrom: says, “’Death Tax’ comes from thinking about entropy and decay. Nature can be cruel, violent, and indifferent — the suffering seems pointless — but accepting and understanding the terms of our existence comes with a certain viriditas, an empowering vitality to approach it head-on.”

Guitarist Kirk McGirk adds, “This one made it into our live sets pretty quickly – people would respond to it pretty well, and we like when we do something that makes people move.”

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Bug Facer – Man Killed by Train

Posted: 2 April 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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28th March 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

In the early days of the Internet, although graphics were basic and the majority of sites were predominantly text, weird shit proliferated in a different way from the way it does now. Sites like rotten.com, active from 1996 to 2012, homed the kind of gruesome, graphic, morbid stuff that had the potential to traumatise a person for life, although there were very few videos online in the late 90s. However, one video which achieved notoriety was the ‘Traingirl’ footage, in which a woman is seen stepping onto a train track directly in front of a speeding train. And yes, on seeing the title of this new release from Hull noisemongers Bug Facer, that was almost immediately where my mind went.

The EP’s title perfectly encapsulates the unstoppable sonic squall of the music it contains: three wild, jolting, jarring sonic blasts that hit hard.

The band say of the release: “On this EP, we tried to emulate the energy we have at our live shows – like a big wall of noise and chaos. By recording everything in one room, all playing together at the same time, you can capture that energy of a live show & the chemistry unlike when you’re getting into overdubs. Compared to our 1st EP Triple Death, we’ve changed a lot as a band & finally we feel people can experience the energy of our live shows on record”.

Having witnessed one of their live performances late last year, I can vouch for this. The production is unpolished, bringing the immediacy of the live show, and the volume, too. Man Killed by Train FEELS loud.

They’ve certainly had an eventful journey to arrive at this point: starting out in 2022 as a duo, they subsequently expanded to a quartet, yielding the Triple Death EP and Lord of the Rings-inspired single cut ‘Fiery Demon Attacks Old Man on Bridge’ – and now they’re down to a three-piece following the departure of co-founder James Cooper. But this has seemingly resulted in a newfound focus, and as is often the case with the power trio format, the individual members play harder and louder to compensate the absence of that second guitar or whatever it may be.

‘Coke Cola Shop’ tears out of the speakers to deliver two minutes of discordant sonic chaos with crunchy bass, screaming guitar, and frenetic percussion. There’s some shouting going on in the middle of all of it, too.

‘Spinosaurus’ may be mellower at first, hinting at a swirling psychedelic space-rock groove, but it never really settles, instead lurching restlessly here and there and ultimately coming on more like Fugazi than Hawkwind. And then they really let fly for the finale: ‘Sweat Pea’ is simply explosive, with tom-heavy rolling drums driving a serrated buzz of guitar. The bass is so immense, so dense, it makes your stomach lurch. It’s a full-on pileup where punk, noise rock, sludge, and dirty metal collide, and petrol tanks explode and there’s broken glass and broken bodies and carnage all over. It’s raw, savage, completely without compromise – or a chorus in sight – and without question their strongest statement to date.

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Citizen Rat – Shut My Mouth

Posted: 1 April 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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28th February 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

It seems that the world is devolving, and that stupidity is not only rewarded, but aspired to. It’s been a decline we’ve been witnessing for some time now, and seems to have really become popular currency at an accelerating pace since the advent of ‘reality’ TV. Jade Goody’s career was founded on her complete lack of knowledge of anything, paired with her superabundant willingness to spout her ignorance to the world with pride. The fact she was also an obnoxious racist seems to have been forgiven with her dying young after something of a media rehabilitation. Then we had to endure the moronic pronouncements of Joey Essex, who apparently believed that a turtle’s beak was made of wood, and while some laughed at him and some laughed with him, people lapped up the hilarity of his idiocy and in less than a decade, we ended up in a place where being a fuckwit was cool, and, more significantly, bankable. Because that’s what it all boils down to, ultimately. If you’re wealthy and famous, or infamous, who cares why or how, an if you can get rich and famous simply for being a fuckwit, you’re made. The tide of anti-intellectualism has soared to attain a truly unprecedented peak in the last couple of months, with the drivelling orange imbecile deciding that the way to improve education in the USA – already low-ranking globally – is to shut down the Department of Education and withdraw funding for libraries and anything that may actually enrich and educate the lives of citizens.

And yet, for all this, sometimes, you need music that’s kinda dumb, straightforward, catchy, energetic. This was always the appeal of punk, I suppose. It was rousing, got people pumped up, provided a focus and an outlet for anger and frustration, articulating those feelings in simple and relatable terms. Enter gritty Australian quartet Citizen Rat, who combine dirty punk in the vein of Anti-Nowhere League with a dash of metal rowdy rap and cite The Bronx, Turnstile, and Fugazi as reference points. Australia seems to be particularly good for producing energetic punky grungy acts, from DZ Deathrays to Mannequin Death Squad, and you can add Citizen Rat to the list now.

They describe ‘Shut My Mouth’ as ‘a gut-punching anthem about losing yourself in the struggle to please others, battling self-doubt, and fighting to be heard’, and its power lies in its simplicity and directness. And it’s not an exercise in self-pity, either – more a case of self-realisation, self-loathing, and a desire to do better: ‘I’m a piece of shit / I can’t shut my mouth / seems my life is heading south’, the front rat rants.

Stylistically, it compresses a surprising array into its full-throttle three minutes, going from The Beastie Boys to Motorhead, and packing some heavy-duty riffery, too. Its appeal is twofold: first, there’s a compelling sense of humanity here, the torture of self-flagellation over misspeaks and simply talking bollocks because anxiety or beer or brain disconnect, and second, it’s got a monster chorus and some strong hooks. Yes, it’s brash, it’s dumb, but it’s ballsy and it’s entertaining. And that’s a win.

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Watch: ‘Burning’ by ChumHuffer

Posted: 30 March 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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New York Sharkcore punks ChumHuffer are back with a new track, ‘Burning,’ from their highly anticipated 7” release, Slaughterhouse Five. Fueled by raw energy and an unrelenting sonic assault, ‘Burning’ is a relentless dive into the struggles of stagnation and the battle for clarity in a chaotic world.

With lyrics that cut deep—“Burning in my head / Voices take control”—the song encapsulates the frustration of being stuck in a cycle of repetition, yearning for progress but feeling the weight of the past. The band’s signature mix of searing riffs, pounding drums, and anthemic vocal delivery make ‘Burning’ a must-hear for punk fans stuck in a rut or recently escaped from one.

“The song is about fighting the loop of insanity, realizing when you’re stuck in the same patterns and the frustration of breaking free,” says Shawn Refuse, singer. “It’s a reflection of personal battles but also speaks to the collective experience of anyone who feels trapped by their circumstances.”

ChumHuffer has built a reputation for delivering aggressive, thought-provoking punk anthems, and Slaughterhouse Five promises to be no exception. The 7” release will feature tracks that capture the band’s hardcore punk sound infused with metal and surf riffs.

Slaughterhouse Five will be available May, 2025 via their personal label DWY Records, and fans can get their first taste with ‘Burning’ streaming March 28th now on all streaming platforms.

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