[engl] We "invented" the DEVO-CORE so here is more for you freaks! I couldn’t be happier. Here’s to another slab of goofy, shambolic keyboard punk from some of the best rockers Bloomington has to offer, this time with not one, but TWO jank-ass keyboards. I bring you Skull Cult: a newly-founded project from, assumedly, one of the bright minds behind Bloomington’s outstanding punk scene. This “Vol. 1 + 2” EP compiles the first two tapes of the group’s efforts, and hot damn, is it fuckin’ GOOD. I’ve only listened to this record for a few days at this point, but Skull Cult has already grown on me just as hemorrhoids do on an overweight, sedentary, middle-aged man’s spotted asshole – meaning very easily. “Vol. 1 + 2” a maniacal, goofy, utterly infectious synth-infused punk project with shameless songwriting. The hammy, omnipresent key tones sound as if they’re emanating from a Fischer-Price “Baby’s First Keyboard” that’s low on batteries, the vocals are discernably alien-like and hellbent on rattling your eardrums, and the bass and drums are so synonymously quirky and synchronized – this EP is insane in every sense of the word. If I’m gonna be honest, the clunky, dopey-ass guitar solos shoehorned throughout “WTTT” literally sold me on this entire band. You need to jam this EP NOW, because Skull Cult is stupidly amazing. I don’t care what any of you nudniks have to say, Skull Cult is a movement I can fuckin’ get behind.

[engl] First UK band on ETT and they making fresh, fiery, and eminently danceable music! SLUMB PARTY are awesome! They just have such a cool vibe... they're overtly arty, but also have this kind of approachability about them as well, rather than something like the more detached art school aesthetic of Gang of Four or Wire. More to the point, they wrote simply incredible songs that combined the power of punk rock with the earworm quality of psychodelic children's songs. As one might expect from this kind of self-consciously artsy music, it is forward-pushing in a way that puts them in stark contrast to today's retro-oriented bands. Of course you can hear strains of various quirky, feminist punk from the Slits to the Raincoats to various other Rough Trade bands and beyond, but this is also heavy and raw in a way that would really only make sense in the year 2017. It's a brilliant EP that will take a little bit of unpacking to make sense of, but there's so much here... and most gratifyingly of all, it gives you the sense of punk actually moving forward. SLUMB PARTY sound like the future erupting out of all your favourite DIY punk 7”s simultaneously. There’s the infectious momentum of Essential Logic driving things ever forward, the arty minimalism of Lilliput underscoring the band’s lyrical subject matter. SLUMB PARTY use all these lightning rods as jumping on points to hurtle us all into a new dimension very much of their own making. This upsurge of energy and vision has now been skillfully captured on the band’s debut EP. The EP is basically everything that I want punk to be. I guess you can draw comparisons with any number of minimal, aggressive bands femenist bands of today (anything from THE WORLD to DOWNTOWN BOYS to PRIMETIME to FRAU to PRIESTS and more), but SLUMB PARTY are truly their own beast. Listening to this is like happening upon some raw, undiscovered European lady- freak punk gem from early 80s Europe, and if you treasure records of that ilk you NEED this like you need few other modern records. Utterly essential and highly recommended.

[engl] STIFF RICHARDS are 5 blokes from Melbourne playing tunes "straight from the shed straight to your head...". Those blokes are called Lochie, Mawson, Raf, Gaz and Wolfie and they're just the latest in a growing number of Aussie punk bands to feature on here. If you're a fan of balls out rock n roll then Oz is where you should cast your gaze. Melbourne scuzzy punk rock band who have created a buzz about town with this admittedly EXCELLENT slice of raw rock & roll which doesn't let up for a second over its all-too-brief duration. Totally A-grade Aussie punk rock. There's nothing fancy going on here: just raw, savage rock n' roll that kicks you straight in the teeth and comes back for more. These gentlemen have definitely absorbed the lessons of the Detroit and Aussie rock of yore, and they manage to invigorate that sonic tradition with an energy that's off the charts. You've got guitars firing at full fury, a punishing rhythm section, and a madman howler on lead vocals who probably literally spits fire. "Do It Right Now" may be as blatant of a Stooges homage as you'll ever hear, but it's also one of the best. Play it at max volume, and you will feel indestructible! And while Stiff Richards are especially satisfying in short, fire-hot doses ("Bad Disease", "Ostentatious"), they sound no less thumping in full-on heavy rock mode. "Dig", which delivers monster riffs and transcendent maniacal screaming from deep within Wolfy's loins, opens the album with a proverbial bang. "PEA", with its call to arms of "Power! Energy! Action!", might as well be Stiff Richards' theme song. It's always a cliche to credit a band with capturing a "live" energy in the studio. But if Dig sounded any more live, you would be able to smell the sweat and spilled beer. These guys play every note like they're trying to blow the roof off of the joint. Something tells me they've succeeded on more than one occasion. A ripper. Short, sharp, intense and fun this LP is in heavy rotation- like a moon around jupiter.

[engl] Supercrush are back to administer another dose of impossibly infectious guitar pop with their new EP, Melody Maker. The Seattle-based group–led by guitarist/vocalist Mark Palm along with bassist Phil Jones and drummer Allen Trainer–named their latest batch of songs after a simple student model electric guitar and a weekly rock mag of yesteryear. It’s a winking tribute to the rock n roll continuum that the band so lovingly embraces, but also a fitting nod to the band members themselves and the amount of genuine songcraft that goes into making music that sounds so effortlessly catchy. Recorded during the same sessions as Supercrush’s 2020 debut album, SODO Pop, the five songs on Melody Maker are far from throwaway leftovers. Engineered by Jones and longtime collaborator Jackson Long and then mixed by Justin Pizzoferrato, the music on Melody Maker highlights Supercrush’s split personality: equal parts soft sentimentality and loud rock bravado. “When I started doing Supercrush it was a return to my earliest musical interests,” says Palm. “I got into catchy melodic stuff and grunge bands before I even got into punk and extreme music. There was a big alt rock thing happening in eastern Canada when I was growing up, with bands like Sloan and the Doughboys getting played on MuchMusic all the time, so I was exposed to all of that. In my mind any band that’s melodic and guitar-based is fair game to be an influence on Supercrush–from The Beatles, to My Bloody Valentine, to Boston. The closing track, 'Rewind’, especially demonstrates this different approach as it forgoes percussion altogether and utilizes mantra-like lyrical repetition and the juxtaposition of layers of chaotic noise, static, and feedback over a cyclical chord progression to bring this collection to it's cathartic conclusion. Although, upon reaching that conclusion it's likely that the listener will find themselves echoing the lyrical sentiment of the final song: "I just want to start again from the beginning.” Luckily, in this case starting again is as simple as flipping the record and dropping the needle. While not a carbon copy of any one band or scene, the sounds of Supercrush will likely appeal to those with a taste for much of the "alternative" music of the early 1990's, from both North America and the UK. From Brits Swervedriver and Teenage Fanclub, to American counterparts like Sugar and Smashing Pumpkins, and even often overlooked Canadians like The Doughboys and Sloan, the common denominator is meticulously crafted pop gems, something that Supercrush also strives to achieve. Ten blissful, hook-filled, syrupy-fuzz-pop anthems; so classically '90s, yet so now.

[engl] What a time to be alive. We're thinking the West Coast jangle-pop trio have done an outstanding good job of upping their (and our) serotonin levels, with four amazing 7"s so we decided that the world needs all of them on one proper Collection LP. Although best known for playing in a long lineage of hardcore, punk, and metal bands, Mark Palm's focus has always been song- craft and pop sensibility. After finally embracing all that is sweet and sublime as the primary songwriter of San Francisco's shoegaze darlings MODERN CHARMS, Palm continues to explore the saccharine side of things with this latest project, SUPERCRUSH. Supercrush is currently in the studio completing work on their debut full length album. However, in the meantime the band is releasing a collection of all their previous material. For the past handful of years Supercrush has been employing a drip-feed approach to releasing new music. Every so often a new two song 7" single of power-pop excellence would appear out of nowhere. And then all would go quiet until the next pair of gems inexplicably materialized out of the silence. Here we have all four supersingles, along with two previously unreleased bonus tracks, collected as one ten song release. From the fuzzed-out guitars of 'Lifted' to the tasteful organ and glockenspiel accents of 'Walking Backwards' it's all here in one attractive package with cover art featuring an eye-catching assemblage in the colorful style we've come to expect from Supercrush. ? The two bonus tracks were recorded in the winter of 2015/2016 as part of the same group of sessions that yielded the 'I've Been Around' and 'I Can't Lie' singles. However, this pair of songs finds the band taking a temporary detour from the short and sugary simplicity of their superpop formula to explore a more spacey approach, recalling the shoegazing dreamy-ness of the outro of 'Melt Into You' from their first single, or perhaps even some of Mark Palm's work with his previous group, Modern Charms. The closing track, 'Rewind’, especially demonstrates this different approach as it forgoes percussion altogether and utilizes mantra-like lyrical repetition and the juxtaposition of layers of chaotic noise, static, and feedback over a cyclical chord progression to bring this collection to it's cathartic conclusion. Although, upon reaching that conclusion it's likely that the listener will find themselves echoing the lyrical sentiment of the final song: "I just want to start again from the beginning.” Luckily, in this case starting again is as simple as flipping the record and dropping the needle. While not a carbon copy of any one band or scene, the sounds of Supercrush will likely appeal to those with a taste for much of the "alternative" music of the early 1990's, from both North America and the UK. From Brits Swervedriver and Teenage Fanclub, to American counterparts like Sugar and Smashing Pumpkins, and even often overlooked Canadians like The Doughboys and Sloan, the common denominator is meticulously crafted pop gems, something that Supercrush also strives to achieve. Ten blissful, hook-filled, syrupy-fuzz-pop anthems; so classically '90s, yet so now.

[engl] There’s a new best band in San Francisco. And this band plays a beautiful cacophony of raw, frenetic guitars, fiercely pounded drums, and jerky yet oddly melodic vocals. Perfect timing and guitar damage reminiscent of the Proletariat underscores a vocal delievery not dissimilar to the Observers but less operatic and more desperate. Synthetic ID sound like Greg Sage, D. Boone, and Colin Newman fabricating the house band for the International Space Station. Or better yet, spending three days in close quarters on an uncharted trek to the Sea of Tranquility. Anxious paranoia dripping from the walls. It's jerky, derailed, and draws heavily from early post-punk, but chugs along at a classic punk tempo, blasting out totally agitated lyrics the whole time. Space madness? Or just a need to escape the surface of this planet, even if it just be through the act of playing two minute punk jams? Either way, it's exciting and different. This record is a tight, fuzzy underground treasure in the waiting.

[engl] Infectious punk tunes to get everyone moving composed by the freaks from CULO. This band has been slaying at their gigs and winning everyone over with their hooks and amazing song writing. Six tracks total produced by GEZA X. I’m sure you know by now that Tarantula features a number of former Cülo members among their ranks and pretty much pick up right where Cülo left off, but honestly I think that this EP is better than anything Cülo produced, and I’m a pretty big Cülo fan! It’s funny, I mentioned to Jeff that for a band that didn’t even have a bass player in their previous iteration, the basslines on this EP are absolutely killer, and without a doubt one of the bright spots in the songs. The other reason I prefer this somewhat to Cülo is because they’ve slowed the tempos down just a hair. While this is still pretty much full-bore punk rock, playing at just a tad less manic tempo really makes the catchiness of these tracks jump out at you. I feel like I hear a lot of the classic punk sensibility of bands like the Dickies or even prime-era Naked Raygun in these tracks, though without sounding like a rehash or an homage at all. The lyrics are even really strong and well worth a read. Here’s hoping that we get a spate of Tarantula releases much like the deluge of Cülo vinyl that we saw in 2010 and 2011 and that they’re all as killer as this one.

[engl] TERRIBLE FEELINGS are four twenty-somethings from Sweden: Manuela sings, Anton plays guitar and sings, Willy plays bass and Andy plays drums. Together they play absolutely fantastic black angst-ridden power-pop and this is their 3rd - EP ( The 4 - songs from the demo in a "new outfit" aka new recorded and mixed etc. ! ) Members of the TERRIBLE FEELINGS play/have played in various other bands and projects, some very cool, some not even good. The hometown of the TERRIBLE FEELINGS is Malmö, a world-famous city for cool Punkrock- and Hardcore-bands like FY FAN, SKITKIDS, HERÄTYS, HÅRDA TIDER, SISTA SEKUNDEN (Andy plays the guitar), DIPPER and SLÖA KNIVAR. The band TERRIBLE FEELINGS formed in the fall of 2009, and their basic impetus was to do something that was thoroughly thought through and set them apart from other punk bands in their town. The band once described their sound as »sorta DISCHARGE meets LOST SOUNDS mixed with surf-guitars and 80ies Swedish punkrock. Or something. It's very melodic.« Rob Seaton from Canada voted them »AMAZING!!!« when his band STATUES shared stage with them in Malmö. Guess what. .. he’s right!

[engl] All the way from Toronto, Ontario, the stunning debut record of TOTAL LOVE! The first time I listened to this record, I knew it was the start of something amazing. What you get is a sun-soaked beach, garage, punk, pop gem that will satisfy anyone's sweet tooth. Simple, haunting, instantly memorable pop songs that will leave you glad to be alive. Let's just call it beach punk; these guys are keeping it tight and far from over-produced. Their formula is simple: big, poppy riffs and catchy choruses, jangly upbeat guitars and reverb soaked vocals. Confident, heart-felt, refreshingly irony-free beach pop that is just about the catchiest thing you have heard in a long time. This is a fantastic and exhilarating summertime pop album, so get your beers and yourselves ready to start summer in TOTAL LOVE! I guess you could say we are a TOTAL LOVE fan and I know that after listening to this record, everyone else will be, too...

[engl] It's always great to release records of bands with members of other outstanding bands, especially when they sound fucking dope! Members of Rock (Karolina), Piss (Per), Cuntroaches (David) and Vexx/G.L.O.S.S. (Corey), got together in Berlin and started this band. This is raw lo-fi hardcore punk in the vein of SKITLICKERS - which seems to be plasphemic, but believe me, it is not! Most of the time I am bored when there are new bands trying to deliver hardcorepunk. So I have just a real ear for bands that take hardcore to some new, weird, and exciting places. And thats why ETT brings you this EP. straight out of the Berlin gutters. The new wave of raw Berlin hardcore is here and alongside fellow bands like LIFE FUCKER and PISS, URIN are holding a match to the firecracker set to explode under the asses of all the would-be artists, internet activists and party people currently scourging the German capital too. Short, fast, loud, brutal, heavy, obnoxious. Too punk for metal, too metal for punk. This is deadly serious raw punk, much better than most of the so called "raw punk" bands out there. It has that "broke into the studio in the middle of the night" sound quality. The vocals, drums and guitar tone - everything sounds like a lost 1982 recording out of Gothenburg. Four perfect tunes in the vein of Shitlickers and Anti Cimex! No compromises - just pure Swedish! Ultra! Mega! Raw! Hardcore! Punk!

[engl] Utopian came out of nowhere and got my attention immediately. They are based in Los Angeles and play a versatile mixture of punk which doesn't bore me out. Mystic and fiery punk on this demo tape - I am sure you will dig it too. The thick, meaty playing in combination with these super straightforward arrangements generate quite a lot of power. They blending aspects of 1980s Italian, Brazilian, Spanish and North American punk with other diverse elements into one great 6-song tape. Dark and claustrophobic, with echoing sharp guitars, galloping drums, and great vocals you believe every word. The sound is dense, frantic, and layered, and despite the fact that it's super raw and punk, it's one of my favorites record to turn up really loud and zone out to while I notice all of the subtle layers in the music. If you like that weird, raw, art, anarcho and catchy style of punk sound that keeps the listener at arm's length you'll flip for this.

[engl] Some of the best rock n rollin bands of the ETT generation covering some of the hottest classics. Finally the compilation you've all been waiting for. The third and most formidable installment on the GTRRC -Good Times RnR Comp- series. The most killer line-up of insane worldwide rockers playing nothing but all time hits. The most definitive and insane covers compilation you could ever imagine by all your favs heroes. Trashy, punky versions of fave songs appear on this enormously fun album.

[engl] Vinny Earley is the brain (floating in a jar) behind the LA based band Vaguess. You might have seen him around. He's pretty tall, kind of looks like a mix between Hulk Hogan and Bart Simpson and is probably standing in the corner of a house party flicking lit matches at the wall, and talking about how GG Allin wasn't even really that gross. In reality, Earley would more likely be seen surfing, skating, telling a hilarious fart joke, or ripping guitar or drums in one of a handful of heady bands in the LA scene like Diode, 2m8o, and Scam Likely. Vaguess, however, is Vinny's lifeblood. Since 2012, the band has released a dozen or so LPs and EPs, touring extensively with a rotating cast of Earley's close buds building a cult following. Vinny fearlessly traverses genres, seamlessly switching between glitchy synth punk, jangly art rock, and twangy cowpunk melded together with his singular approach to songwriting, production, and unique voice. On his latest release Thanks No Thanks, Vaguess joins forces with ETT embarking on an odyssey of bigger and bolder production, infectious melody, and introspective songwriting propelled by dialed, head-bobbing rhythms. With Thanks No Thanks, the vibe of the music shifts in controlled bipolarity as the songs flow from snotty punk tune to heart-felt ballad to dancy Indie banger. The music on this record, however, is uniformly grounded by taut drumming, angular riffing, and tunneling synth arrangements. Earley's singing style pings from more spoken, punctuated post-punk vocals to ringing, belted choruses. The lyrics feel personal, like he's working through feelings of love lost, spiritual devastation, and deep conflict with society’s inequities explored through Earley's poetic, sardonic lens. These narratives careen through the album with the help of densely arranged instrumentation and engineering magic cooked up in Earley's own homespun studio. This album is best enjoyed with headphones as the music thoughtfully swirls in stereo sound. Vaguess delivers a diverse pallet of modern rock sounds as a uniform and cohesive piece of art. Thanks No Thanks has something for nearly everyone- eggheads and spikey cretins alike. And while Vinny may not look like The Hulkster or Bart Simpson or do any of that other stuff that was said initially, he more importantly continues to contribute his singular and exciting rock n roll vison to the punk zeitgeist with a new Vaguess Record.

[engl] Warm Bodies is a crazy free jazz weirdo punk band featuring multiple familiar faces of the Kansas City scene. The band is led by singer Olivia Gibb who is known well locally for her art and graphic design. She is backed by Ian Teeple on guitar, Jordan Carr on bass, and Gabe Coppage on drums. This Kansas City punk phenomenon has quickly become one of my very favorite punk bands in the world. Are Warm Bodies my favorite current hardcore punk band? If they don’t hold the title outright they are very near the top of the heap. Something about what they do just appeals perfectly to my sensibilities! Warm Bodies play a deranged flavor of punk rock n’ roll, with a heavy-handed emphasis on rock... It’s consistently disoriented, rarely adhering to a song structure or style that’s easy to follow, and instead centering itself on the decisively reverbed female vocals, and dynamic bass and guitar work that provide a captivating listening experience no matter which instrument you chose to focus on. The distinct chromaticism, strangling, and noodling from the guitarist’s chords contrasts the incredibly controlled basslines, and creates this sort of necessary balance: for music that generally sounds as if it’s falling apart, there’s such an undeniable aura of deliberateness that displays how talented the group is to achieve that sort of a calculated texture. Despite their unpredictable nature, there’s still plenty of punk qualities present that makes their music easy to appreciate. Combine that with the anxious temper and tightly-wound drum work, and you’ve got a LP full of compositions that are bound to electrify your senses through and through. They are undeniably a hardcore band, but when you look in their music for all of the things that hardcore bands typically do you’ll find very, very few of those things. In that respect, Warm Bodies recall a subspecies of “weird hardcore” that doesn’t get much attention these days. I’m thinking of spastic, borderline funky bands like Th’Inbred, the early Meat Puppets, and (to a lesser extent) Rhythm Pigs and NoMeansNo. By and large, the aforementioned bands’ records haven’t aged particularly well, and I’d honestly be surprised if anyone in Warm Bodies had even heard of those bands (much less tried to emulate them), but at the same time Warm Bodies seem to be tapping into this tradition of musically ambitious freak punk that I never even really put together as a genre in my head before. Warm Bodies sound unrestrained and wild, like a lot of the Lumpy Records and Total Punk-type bands that they’re typically associated with. In other words, Warm Bodies are a treat for both the brain and the gut in equal measure, and the ability to balance those two things so things so expertly is as rare a quality as you’re going to find in punk rock. Buy everything this band has ever done (and probably will do!), including this LP. If your musical tastes resemble mine at all, you won’t be disappointed. I can’t just emulate Tim Yohannan’s review of the first Die Kreuzen LP where he just writes “This is fucking great!” over and over again, even if that would probably be the most appropriate response to this little bottle of lightning. So just ignore whatever I just wrote and buy this thing. Highest possible recommendation.