And that, my friends, is what Punk Rock is really about.  All you new punk poseurs take note.

There’s this thing about the modern versions of the punk/garage universe occupied by folks like The Strange Boys, Nobunny, etc.: Lots of it sounds the same.  It’s a driving beat with occasional flourishes, a chainsaw guitar, vocals with echo, and ample fuzzy guitar breaks that sound like The Byrds on crystal meth.  I must receive [...]

Cover albums are usually a collection of songs that sound pretty much like the originals, with some really eclectic choices to show how cool the band is.  In other words, they’re about establishing credibility for musical tastes, but not so much for musical skill.  It’s much easier to be creative when someone else already did [...]

Last April, I prayed that a group of really obnoxious looking kids called The Strange Boys would get some hype and love. Sometimes, dreams come true.  In the Red Records (Black Lips, Jay Reatard, Mystery Girls) will release the Austin, Texas band’s latest foray into organ-driven, 1950s garage-style nasal punk this month. The band has [...]

Punk like The Stooges or The Black Lips.  Retro like Nobunny or The Ramones.  Psychedelic like The Standells.  Grungy like The Electric Prunes or Wolfmother.  Splinters and blisters of songs, like “The Park (Dig It),” that could and should have gone on longer.  Fully formed but bizarre ballads that sound like they were recorded in [...]

Do you miss the Bloc Party? And by Bloc Party, I mean the kind of exciting, unstable postpunk that made Silent Alarm the seventh best album of the last decade? Well, then, Kittens Ablaze might just be your thing. The band’s debut full-length is a collection of quirky, catchy tunes that mixes 2/3 postpunk with [...]