Browsing Tag

Punk

Honeybadger is out for blood in their biting alt-punk hit, Cold Wind

Posted on 6 February 2023

After hearing the ferocity of the grungy punk riffs in Honeybadger’s latest single, Cold Wind, there is no room to question how the Brighton-based sonic juggernauts came about their moniker.

With a tonal palette that makes Oh Sees sound sedate, Cold Wind is a high-octane psychedelically off-kilter whirlwind through the breakthrough act’s ingenuity and technical ability. Lyrically, Cold Wind spits venom at the type of frauds destined to trip over their contradictions after falsifying the truth to fit their insidious agenda.

Everyone has met one such protagonist, and Cold Wind is the ultimate vindicating middle finger with the boisterous rolling punches. Playing chaotically is one thing; orchestrating tightly disordered anthemics is quite another, and that is exactly where Honeybadger, who had a riotous 2022, excel.

Since forming in 2014, Honeybadger has stormed stages across the UK and featured on BBC Introducing, BBC Live Lounge and Wyatt Wendel’s Planet Rock show. Though we are sure the best is yet to come.

Cold Wind was officially released on January 28th. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hybridic indie punks Junior Bill painted an anthemic picture of injustice with ‘Boys from Jungle’

Posted on 4 February 2023

With socially conscious lyrics as hard-hitting as the ones penned by Bob Vylan, Kid Kapichi, Meryl Streek, Junior Bill are way ahead of the trend of cuttingly observational and compassionate lyricism in their latest single, Boys from Jungle. Punk boomers who bemoan the wokeness of contemporary punk may want to save their blood pressure spiking by looking away from the hit that advocates the rights of asylum seekers and paints a stark picture of the injustice that greets them when they arrive on our blighted shores.

Rather than skating by on their lyrical wit alone, Junior Bill concocts awakeningly volatile alt-indie instrumental ensembles that are lightyears away from the usually brashy swagger of UK indie rock. With off-kilter guitars that wouldn’t be out of place in the alt-90s no-wave movement and the post-punk nuances tearing through the rhythm section, getting wrapped up in the hybridic punk aesthetic is non-optional.

Boys from the Jungle is the first single from their forthcoming debut album, Youth Club!, which more than has the potential to become the UK alternative album of the year.

Boys from Jungle officially released on January 27th. It is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Skitz Wizards sharpened their knives in ‘Anger as a Weapon’

Posted on 25 January 2023

The title single from Skitz Wizards’ 2023 EP, Anger as a Weapon, is a vitriolic hardcore punk cut above the rest. There’s enough cathartic venom to make the reprehensible actions of our disaster capitalist overlords momentarily bearable.

With ample distortion in their arsenal, the Nottingham-based outfit, which says true to the virtue of early anarcho-punk, is abrasive enough to put Napalm Death in the same league as Ed Sheeran.

Founded in 2021, the duo set out to extend sonic escapism to the downtrodden. Given the socio-politically agitated environment we are all suffocating in as poverty becomes more prolific, it should come as no surprise that plenty of the increasingly disenfranchised populous is tuning into the raw distorted bass and breakdowns that can effortlessly match our own mental turmoil.

Anger as a Weapon is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Izzy and the Black Trees reached the pinnacle of empowering post-punk with their standout single, Liberate

Posted on 22 January 2023

London-based Polish powerhouse Izzy and the Black Trees barbed the post-punk genre with socially progressive spikes in the standout single, Liberate, taken from their second album, Revolution Comes in Waves. It’s easily the best thing to happen to post-punk since Christian Death unleashed Only Theatre of Pain in ’82; at least this LP is provocative for all the right reasons!

Izzy Rekowska’s organically magnetic vocal lines come alive around the calls for a better future for women the world over as the tribally awakening drums add a commanding backbeat around the psych-tinged guitars that will be a hit with Poison Ivy and Glenn Branca fans.

It isn’t every day you encounter a band that is so alchemically more than the sum of all creative parts. Izzy and the Black Trees have exactly what it takes to take you on a scintillating ride that opens your mind to the possibility of a future where feminist records only serve to show us how far we have come – not how far we have to go.

Following the release of the sophomore LP, Izzy and the Black Trees will be hitting UK festival stages, including Sound City in Liverpool – you won’t want to miss it.

Listen to Liberate and the LP in full on Spotify.

Follow the band on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Chloë Lupton is set to lift the collective mood with her intoxicating amalgam of RnB, Funk, Disco and Pop in ‘Midnight Radio;

Posted on 20 January 2023
Chloë Lupton

RnB Funk Pop fusionist, Chloë Lupton, has transmitted the ultimate soundtrack to intoxicated euphoria with her latest single, Midnight Radio.

The catchy disco grooves that pulsate through old-skool-inspired production are seductively efficacious in their ability to reflect the heat when sparks fly from a chance encounter on the dancefloor as you connect through music.

The 22-year-old Suffolk-based artist is a creative powerhouse after spending the last seven years studying and working in music, acting and dance, including training in performing arts and musical theatre.

After realising she has an ear for soul, jazz and RnB, which also happens to be where her stylish signature vocals lie best, she worked on adding her own individualistically amalgamated sonic style to the airwaves. Now signed with Radical Lounge Studios, there is no telling where the soulful prodigy will be a year from now. She’s definitively one to watch.

Midnight Radio will officially release on January 20th across all major streaming platforms. Check it out via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Knottie Boys released the ultimate punk-rock chagin soundtrack with ‘Sadsquatch’

Posted on 16 January 2023

Taken from their garagey punk-rock EP, A Face Fulla Dirt, the standout single, Sadsquatch, from The Knottie Boys is a melodically hook-rife exposition of reclaimed shame. By allowing the chagrin-deep lyrics to unravel as a series of confessions rooted in quirky indignity, Sadsquatch projects intimate disclosures in the same breath as lamenting about public knowledge of them.

It was an ingeniously bold move from the New York-hailing fourpiece, who have released two EPs and a studio album since forming in 2019. By pulling influence from CBGB headliners to folk-punk to the percussive fills of marching bands to the acts who made the 2007 Warped Tour infamous, the bitterly sweet powerhouse has carved out a niche and filled it to precision.

If Neutral Milk Hotel formed as a punk-rock outfit, they’d boast the same appeal as The Knottie Boys, who have exactly what it takes to be one of the premier NYC punk bands in 2023. Watch this space before they pour ennuitic resonance into it.

A Face Fulla Dirt is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

My Mistake: Norwegian band TwoMinutesHate drop explosive sizzler fuXmas

Posted on 23 December 2022

Dropping an astonishing track to get all moods boosted to maximum capacity, TwoMinutesHate sends our minds into a whole new world of fantasy on the excellent new single fuXmas.

TwoMinutesHate is a Norwegian pop punk band who roars through with music to shake the soul alive with on each of their energetic singles.

”TwoMinutesHate’s debut EP Restless, Nervous And Way Too Loud has already earned them a significant amount of airplay on one of Norway’s largest radio channels NRK P13, and even landed them a spot on the soundtrack of the Norwegian comedy Jentetur.” ~ TwoMinutesHate

Bringing that punk heavy Christmas cheer to us all and thundering in with a glorious energy, TwoMinutesHate sound in top form on fuXmas and has that insatiable lip-licking vitality to awaken us all from any sleepy slumber.

fuXmas from Norwegian pop punk band TwoMinutesHate is a hugely motivating track which shall spark so many memories to explode with excitement. Charging through with much velocity and showing us their elevating progression, to thrill our hearts into a happier place.

Listen up on Spotify. See more on IG.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

The Empty Page affront the new normal with their 90s nostalgia-implanting electro-punk anthem, Dry Ice

Posted on 20 November 2022

Rather than releasing a sonic sign of the stagnant times, The Empty Page protested our drab and dog-eared-with-anxiety modernity by letting pulsating synths guide the way towards 90s nostalgia in their electro-punk hit, Dry Ice.

Lyrically, you’re reminded of how it felt to be stripped of inhibition, sharing the euphoria with strangers long before they could request you on Facebook and never speak to you again and even longer before the pandemic left its mark on our social appetites while the dizzying guitars drop off-kilter momentum around the gravelly pulls of the post-punk bass strings.

It’s a major shift from the Manchester-based outfit’s previous sound that has been lauded by just about everyone that matters. The duo has ventured into their The Julie Ruin era, and we couldn’t be here for it more. After all, synths were the true gateway to punk and DIY (FIGHT ME), and this new anxiously frenetic earworm that will pull Polaroids of strobe-lit hedonism towards your temporal lobe is the ultimate affront to the new normal.

Dry Ice will officially release on November 18th. Watch the official video on YouTube, add it to your Spotify playlists, or support the band by purchasing the single on Bandcamp. 

Follow the Empty Page on Facebook, Instagram & TikTok. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Toying With the Past

Posted on 18 November 2022

Fans of the 1980’s Washington DC punk rock scene will be thrilled to know that area legends, Misfit Toys have regrouped to record previously unreleased songs. For those wanting to relive the electric days of underground pop and alternative music, or if you’re still craving that yesteryear nostalgia, the track “Stop and Fade Away,” is a must.

Guitars playing an attitude-line opens the song, then changing into chugging chords in happily predictable changes maintains the rhythm section for the rest of the track. The vocalist, (Ukrainian borne) Victory Vizhanska is more than apt in her lead-singer position with just the right amount of sass in her voice to complement the song’s edge. Overall, for fans of the Go-Go’s or Blondie, Misfit-Toys is a welcome sound. It’s like an upbeat anthem we can all bop to while enjoying time in an arcade or roller-rink.

This group really is a wellspring of fascinating DC-Local-Band information, and for those interested in this peculiar niche, hopping over to their website at themisfit-toys.com is highly advised. There they have interviews with each of the band-mates, quite a bit of history. And of course, a page with links to a host of music videos.

Ferocious Leeds punk upstarts Mince smash their paws on the window with Misprint

Posted on 5 November 2022

Sawing off the tree and doing it with a cheeky wink too, Mince surge through with a striking single to dust off those mud-soaked boots with on their stomping new release called Misprint.

Mince is a 5-piece Leeds, UK-based indie post-punk band who blasts through with a thunder-like entry into our shocked souls each time they drop the heat.

“Misprint is a problem that nobody is ever likely to face. We all have irrational fears, but what about the worries our minds haven’t even begun to cover? If you feel like you’ve forgotten or left something at home, it’s probably just the knowledge that anything can change your life in an instant. Be care-free.” ~ Mince

With fire in their bellies and so much venom laced inside and ready to bite at any moment, Mince send our minds alive and is a swimming pool of fun with a sensational single to get truly excited about. This is raw to the core. Just the way it was intended.

Misprint from Leeds, UK-based indie post-punk band Mince, is a hammering new single which will cause a few rib cages to be tested. Powerful in delivery and soaring with a tremendously exciting sound, this is a mood-altering track which shall take our breath away rather quickly.

Hear this fine single on Spotify and see more news on IG.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen