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Punk

Jump Jump Joan made sparks fly in their vintage tone-wrapped pop-punk hit, This Night

Posted on 6 November 2023

Jump Jump Joan cruised in on a riptide of surf punk with their stylistically exhilarant standout single, This Night, taken from their debut EP, This is Us, which hit the airwaves on September 1st.

By the time the palpitatingly sweet chorus hits, you’ll be wishing that all pop-punk hits were as vintagely hued as This Night; as momentum drives through the overdriven guitar lines, the lead vocals drape seductively magnetic harmonies over the rancour to create a natural anchor amidst the chaos.

There aren’t many outfits that can hold vocal candles to the likes of Debbie Harry and Dolores O’Riordan, but if any powerhouse can hold their own against the icons, it is the Somerset-hailing ensemble who are already making major waves across streaming platforms and winning favour from the likes of Blitzcat Records and Honk Magazine. We’re stoked to see Jump Jump Joan hold dominion over the UK punk scene in 2024.

Stream This Night on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Drink the sonic Kool-Aid in Max Diaz’s twangy alt-punk Tour De Force, COWBOY CULT

Posted on 29 October 2023

The cowboy-hating Texan Max Diaz brought his seminal single, COWBOY CULT, to life via swathes of sardonic vitriol, potent enough to make every punky take on garage rock by Fidlar sound like a love letter to the universe.

While the instrumentals weave their way through bluesy entanglements, Diaz uses every lyrical line to roll with the punches in his heavyweight canter; even if you’ve never pulled on a pair of cowboy boots in your life, you will feel every drop of vindicating venom projected by the artist’s devil may care disdain towards his fellow Texans.

You’d think all of the controversy of his Machiavellian attacks on the people surrounding him who are hellbent on seeing the regression of social progress would leave him unpopular, but the streaming stats don’t lie. After racking up millions of streams on several of his tracks, he’s the pissed-off prince that wasn’t promised but rose through the ashes of redneck numbskullery regardless. We fucking adore him.

COWBOY CULT was released with the rest of the artist’s sophomore LP, METANOIA on October 13th; do yourselves a favour and stream the entire Tour De Force in full via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Martin’s Revenge unleashed their gnarled psy-surf nightmare ‘Jack Let Go of the Door’

Posted on 23 October 2023

Martin’s Revenge made the Oh Sees sound like a 90s pop boyband with their latest darkly domineering single, Jack Let Go of the Door, which leads psych rock down a murky and nefarious corridor and surfs up to a gnarled nightmarescape that any fans of aural aggravation will want to repetitively revisit.

After The Eighties Matchbox B-Line disaster left a void in the industry with their departure, Martin’s Revenge has finally filled it with the rolling harbingering drum fills, electrified to the nth-degree guitars, stabbing basslines and drawling vox in their latest release, which revisits a Fear and Loathing-esque drug trip with striking visceralism.

Following the success of their EP, Harry’s Redroom, the Nottingham-based thee-piece is set to let the leash off of their latest EP, VR Porn, on November 6th. After reinforcing and honing their sound significantly between the two releases, Martin’s Revenge has established itself as more than the sum of its parts and the influence of Fugazi, Pixies, Idles and The Jesus Lizard.

Jack Let Go of the Door was officially released on October 23, Stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Diablofurs’ Vampires of Rome will sink its teeth into the heart of any power pop fans.

Posted on 21 October 2023

Imagine Sonic Youth came to fame on this side of the Atlantic, they displaced their distorted guitars with analogue synths, and punky power pop ran in the veins of Goo, and you will get an idea of what Diablofurs consummately concocted with the lead single, Vampires of Rome, from their forthcoming album, Welcome to the City of Fun.

The deeply affecting atmosphere in the verses of Vampires of Rome, which holds an alchemic candle to Echo and the Bunnymen, makes the crescendos even more sonically transcendent to experience. While just about anything with a hook gets labelled as an earworm in these lazy days of music journalism, the infectious appeal of Vampires of Rome is far too intoxicating to experience once. From the first shoegazey rings of euphonic bliss from the guitars in the intro to the Teenage Kicks-y energy when the track reaches its momentum, the nostalgic sense of fabled romanticism will sucker diehard romantics and those whose souls haven’t been stirred viscerally since the 80s.

After receiving critical acclaim from Vive Le Rock, being lauded and spun by 6 Music and BBC Introducing and performing unforgettable shows at Rebellion, the Nottingham-based outfit is set to take the scene by storm with their sophomore release.

Pre-order the sophomore LP, which is due for official release on October 27, from Rough Trade and ensure it sells out as fast as the debut album.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

HeadWar has another hit in their grunge-punk arsenal with ‘Ladders’

Posted on 19 October 2023

With their sophomore EP, Bled Dry, the Madison Wisconsin prodigal sons of grunge punk HeadWar forcibly occupied the middle ground between Fugazi, Nirvana and Pantera and took no prisoners.

The self-described icons of awkward exceeded themselves with the catatonic furore which unfurls through every fortified with catatonic contempt progression in their most seminal single to date, Ladders, which is a cutting with razor-sharp lyrical position exposition on the need to socially climb.

The monolithic breakdown which bursts into a riff that would even leave Slayer fans weak at the knees is the ultimate affirmation of the technical skill of the powerhouse, which is otherwise disguised by the speed of the time signatures and lashings of distortion which lends itself effortlessly well to the lyrical lamentation.

Stream the Bled Dry EP by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Manchester gutter punks The Battery Farm thrashed out against the indignity of modernity in ‘House of Pain’

Posted on 14 October 2023

From the offset of their career, The Battery Farm have launched aural assaults to elucidate the filth that lies in the stitches of our Tory sleaze-slicked social tapestry. Their most recent single, House of Pain, is no exception as it brings forth a new brand of furore while leaving the snarky antagonism by the wayside to deliver a necessitated depiction of the brutality endured by the working classes.

The protestive volition within the vocal delivery couldn’t make it clearer that the last straw has been drawn in response to the indignity of modern survival; it finds a feral way of communicating that shame shouldn’t be carried by the people doing what they need to get by; it should rot the souls of the late-stage capitalists forcing the masses into degrading subjugation.

With thrash punk drum fills hammering the discontent into House of Pain and Dominic Corry’s guitars carrying their signature kaleidoscopic with industrial dissonance effects to visualise the foreboding and unforgiving climate, the visceralism within the stark reflection of post-Brexit reality couldn’t be more affectingly astute.

If you needed any more convincing that the Manchester-based gutter punks have moved into their Motorhead era, the B-side single, Time of Peace, should suffice. The exposition of living in a time of perpetual crisis is all the more impactful with the atrocities of the conflict in Gaza playing out before our powerless eyes as even the Labour party leader condones the international war crimes.

Stream House of Pain on Spotify or watch the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get moving with Johnjames Bruce’s acoustic post-punk hit, Dance

Posted on 8 October 2023

After cutting his teeth as a bass player in the punk outfit The Irrelevants, the Lancashire-hailing rhythm-maker, Johnjames Bruce, found his voice as a solo acoustic artist and started to release his own indie-folk punk music in 2018.

His latest single, Dance, carries the raucous and cutting spirit of post-punk; heavy distortion was surplus to requirement with the swagger of the acoustic guitars, the snarl in the vocals and the snappy percussive backbeat.

If you’re a fan of Pleasure Heads, Youth Sector, and The Walkmen and like your punk hits raw, intimate and uniquely authentic, Johnjames Bruce’s discography will be your new favourite discovery.

Dance was officially released on September 29; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

WD-HAN drove their listeners towards progressive action and revolution in ‘Something’s Gotta Change’

Posted on 17 August 2023

In this year alone the LA-hailing rock outfit, WD-HAN, has riffed right across the rock spectrum with their diverse discography. With their latest single, Something’s Gotta Change, the chameleonic powerhouse turned their vitriol towards political punk-rock to deliver a viscerally empowering hit. If any single has what it takes to spark an anarchist revolution, it’s Something’s Gotta Change.

Starting the hit with the sobering fact that more people are enslaved today than ever in history was an efficacious way for WD-HAN to drive their listener’s compulsions toward progressive action. The collective rise in individualism and apathy created the perfect storm for oppression; we’ve sat back and watched how the marginalised have been attacked – it is only a matter of time before injustice meets everyone who can’t afford to escape into space.

Believing that the issue of human trafficking deserves attention resulted in the release of one of the most impactful anthems we’ve heard this year. The track was created in support of the Foundation for a Slavery-Free World and Operation Underground Railroad. 

Something’s Gotta Change was officially released on August 11th; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

McKay versed indie-folk-punk poetry in their latest sardonically scintillating single, Bad Liar

Posted on 1 August 2023
McKay

Bridging the sonic gap between Neutral Milk Hotel, Mumford and Sons, and Bob Dylan is the confessionally exhilarant indie folk single, Bad Liar, from the storytelling four-piece, McKay.

While the vocal melodies prove all too well that McKay know how to hit their harmonised vocal notes with euphonic precision and honed cadence, Bad Liar favours the visceralism of raw spoken word expression, allowing the meta lyrics to hit harder than a candid meteor from space.

With each progression, the single drifts from different eras of folk, while the harmonica timbre will throw you right back to the 70s, the folk-punk energy and massive indie folk choruses fast-forward through the decades at breakneck speed.

The Nashville-hailing outfit may be best known for their passionate performances during live shows, but thankfully, for all of us across the pond, their insightful lyricism and dynamic presence resonate just as well on record.

Bad Liar will hit the airwaves on August 1st; stream it on SoundCloud and follow the affably rogue outfit via Instagram and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

HeadWar say R.I.P. to cognitive autonomy in their rancorous installation of grunge-punk ‘Sheep (2023)’

Posted on 18 July 2023

Don’t wage war; wage HeadWar by listening to the Madison WI-residing grunge-punk trio’s latest single, ‘Sheep (2023)’. While saying R.I.P. to cognitive autonomy, the trio pulled out their heaviest instrumental artillery before sludging it up to the nth degree to replicate the chaos currently breeding in socio-political landscapes across the globe.

While I wasn’t all too convinced by the idea that hard times breed good music before, HeadWar is headstrong enough in their vindication to create an irrefutable testament to the adage. With Dalton Aerts ensuring that his vocals are just as savage as his guitars, Sam Tisue paying homage to the drum fills that make Metallica so ferociously cathartic, and Kyle Eith making the rhythm section as tight as possible; for three minutes, Sheep (2023) may convince you to stop banging your head off the wall and bang to the sonic absolution instead.

Add Sheep (2023) to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast