With their breakthrough hit ‘Into The Valley’ in 1979, Dunfermline, Scotland’s premier export Skids quickly rose to become one of the most respected and popular bands to emerge from the UK punk and new wave era. Founding members Richard Jobson (vocals) and Stuart Adamson (guitars) were a dynamic combination up front (Adamson went on to even greater commercial success when he later founded Big Country) while the band’s tight, taut sound was grounded by William Simpson on bass and first Tom Kellichan and later Mike Baillie on drums.
Always considered up there with the greatest among their peers – The Jam, Siouxsie And The Banshees, and The Stranglers, for example – both singles and albums showcased…
Category: punk
La Peste was Boston’s first true punk band. The material in this compilation comes from the studio session that produced the Better Off Dead 7”, their 1979 session with The Cars’ Ric Ocasek, a 1979 session at Electro Acoustic Studios, 4-track loft recordings and the the band’s very first studio sessions with Curt Naihersey (Pastiche, The Kids).
Originally formed after frontman Peter Dayton witnessed The Ramones perform at CBGB in 1975, La Peste became one of Boston’s first true punk bands. What started as a group of art students who had never played instruments quickly evolved into a force that helped define the city’s burgeoning punk scene. Despite releasing just one single during their initial run-1978’s ‘Better Off Dead’-the band’s sound and attitude…
The very first release on Frontier Records in March 1980 was an EP by Pasadena’s Flyboys – a power pop/punk band that began in 1977 with singer/songwriter John Curry and Jim “Trash” Decker from The Crowd (and tangentially, Jay from The Simpletones, who would later sign to Posh Boy). Flyboys gigged all over the Southland, paying their dues opening for every national and local punk band from Huntington Beach to Hollywood. They were anything but typical punks with their day-glo clothes, Cuban heels, and maddeningly catchy songs. Infectious hooks and John Curry’s bleached-blonde pompadour were the band’s trademarks.
Lisa Fancher interviewed Flyboys when she was a rock scribe at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. The band’s lack of traction…
There’s often a fine line between homage and pastiche, between influence and theft. And all too often, bands fall on the wrong side of that line. Not, however Middleman. The London-based four-piece, who formed just a few years ago, certainly don’t hide who and what their influences are, but rather than crafting a watered-down version of them, they use those influences as a foundation and stepping stone to bring them into now with youthful exuberance and energy.
Caught between power-pop and punk rock, Following the Ghost is the band’s debut LP, and comes off the back of two acclaimed EPs, December 2022’s ‘Cut Out the Middleman’, and 2024’s ‘John Dillinger Died for You’. Raucously unhinged yet simultaneously full of catchy hooks,…
…deluxe anniversary reissue features 11 new tracks, including unreleased demos and remixes with artists Cody Votolato (The Blood Brothers), Youth Code and Kerry McCoy (Deafheaven).
On the second track of Touché Amoré‘s emotional and complicated fourth effort Stage Four, vocalist Jeremy Bolm addresses his late mother — as he does throughout the album, written out of grief, guilt and regret over her passing due to cancer two years ago — and tells her, “I haven’t found the courage to listen to your last message to me.”
The album is a passionately written and deeply moving meditation on loss, and Touché Amoré have never been better as a band. Bolm’s throat-shredding yell tears through most of these lines, reminding us that although…
There are debut albums that arrive with intent, and there are debut albums that arrive like a pneumatic drill through drywall. GNAT, the first full-length from Manchester’s drummer-fronted psych-punk quartet Wax Head – recorded with long-term collaborator Borja Regueira at Manchester’s GLUE Studio and mastered by Melbourne’s Joe Carra – is emphatically the latter: sub-thirty minutes and zero patience for anything resembling restraint.
The title track opens as both decree and detonation: a blitzing, subterranean riff-storm whose fretboard acrobatics would make Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman raise an eyebrow. At 90 seconds, it doesn’t so much announce the album as ambush it. ‘Bug Doctor’ follows with equal ferocity, the rhythmic convulsions and…
…On their earliest recordings, Poison Ruïn were a compelling curiosity: an anonymous, no-fi anarcho-punk project, kitted out in chainmail and singing about the plight of the medieval peasantry. Their focus has grown both wider and sharper over the past half-decade, as founding member Mac Kennedy has fleshed out a full lineup and spoken more openly about the band’s intent. He’s learned to walk the fine line between what he’s called “sword for sword’s sake” aestheticism and the use of medieval imagery to make pointed societal critiques. Their second album, Hymns from the Hills, is Kennedy’s view from beyond the proverbial castle walls, and he writes eloquently from that perspective. He expresses solidarity with those “dropped off and discarded…
…4CD deluxe edition include the remastered original album, previously unreleased demos, John Peel Sessions (some never broadcast), and unreleased 1979 concert from Troon.
…Originally released in 1979, Stiff Little Fingers were Ireland’s answer to both the Clash and the Sex Pistols. They had the personal and political stance of the former, and the noisy, pissed off, slash-and-burn musical aesthetic as the latter. Fronted by guitarist and songwriter Jake Burns (he collaborated with journalist Gordon Ogilvie), SLF took off with their two singles “Alternative Ulster,” and, for that time, the utterly out of control screaming that was “Suspect Device.” These two singles make the purchase price of the album a priority. They represent barely contained youthful…
Matinee Acoustic Live at the Prince Albert finds Johnny Moped taking an unexpected turn with an acoustic set that, against all expectations, proves both engaging and highly entertaining. The very idea of a Johnny Moped acoustic performance might raise eyebrows among longtime fans, but the results speak for themselves.
Historically known for their chaotic and unpredictable shows, Johnny Moped have, in recent years, evolved into a far tighter and more dependable live act. That doesn’t mean the band have lost their edge—mistakes still happen, but within the Moped universe, they only add to the charm. What truly drives the performance is the same energy and excitement that has always defined them, and it remains fully intact here.
After 33 years, Guitar Wolf returns to Goner Records, where they started! Way back in 1993, Wolf Rock was released by Goner and immediately, around the world, people enthralled with raw rock n roll and pure Japanese enthusiasm for over-the-top noise realized they had a new band to watch out for.
Many tours, many records, and many eardrums later, Guitar Wolf has returned for the latest, and greatest Guitar Wolf record yet – More Jet. More raw, crunching guitar noise, frantic rhythms, and unpredictable screaming! More head-scratchingly-great song topics! The perfect blend of Link Wray / Ramones / Joan Jett / Cramps sound and attitude mixed with industrial-strength noise.
Led by singer and guitarist Seiji the group’s…
Minneapolis’ VIAL magically met each other through a Tinder post in 2019, brought together by a shared love of 90’s punk, indie, and grunge. Launching into their home scene with their debut Grow Up they quickly became local favorites with everyone from The Current to Music In Minnesota. Signing to LA’s Get Better Records in 2021, their follow up full length, LOUDMOUTH, was an evolution of their indie-pop and alt-rock beginnings but began to hint at other leanings, especially in the tracks “Ego Death” and the fan-favorite “Piss Punk.” A little less reflection on the past and a little more anger at the future.
Even though their third release, burnout, retained the whimsy, the fiercer side of things kept creeping in. Tales of betrayal and teen drama were…
Sydney’s Itchy and the Nits are back with their sophomore album, chronicling the joys of telling lies, stinky stinky men, and nudie beaches. For a taste of summer in the darkest of times, look only to Itchy and the Nits to toss you a swimsuit and make a splash.
Following their scrappy debut EP and two years touring across the US, EU, and Japan, the Nits have amplified the charm, crisped up production, and continued on their mission of spunky, fast punk akin to the Ramones meeting Courtney Bartnett at a beachfront concessions stand. Greetings from Itchy and the Nits is rife with hits and slam-danceable classics. Boasting only 22 minutes of runtime, the 12 track album is endlessly repeatable.
The Nits are full of fun, but there’s also…
For a band that has always cultivated a unique and idiosyncratic sound, New Age Doom appears to have fully mastered their craft on Angels Against Angels. The album demonstrates a confident command of arrangement and atmosphere, tactically marshalling diverse musical elements while seamlessly integrating multiple genres. At the same time, it advances a spiritual message rooted in equality, love and truth.
Sparkling with elements of jazz, experimental, electronic, progressive rock and dub, the record is elevated further by the unmistakable vocals and lyricism of H.R. (Human Rights), frontman of the legendary band Bad Brains. Angels Against Angels uproots disparate sonic textures and intricately fuses them with both playfulness…
Released on handsome red splatter vinyl for its 45th birthday, the 1981 debut by Edinburgh’s finest has lost none of its ferocity with the passing of time and is as divisive now as it was back then. A vital, hardcore-infused re-statement of the uncompromising principles of 1977 or the retrograde acme of cliched and cartoonish punk? Neither point of view is without its merits.
In 1981, there were plenty of reasons to believe that UK punk was indeed dead. Sid, who was punk, was dead while his former colleague John Lydon was releasing experimental records like The Flowers of Romance. The Clash were making funky pop singles and the Damned goth pop ones; even stalwarts Sham 69 had split after the lamentable The Game. Meanwhile, Wattie Buchan…
Third Man Records have released the first-ever live anthology from Ann Arbor, MI–based noise rock legends Laughing Hyenas.
That Girl – Live Recordings 1986–1994 collects 18 ferocious tracks, painstakingly compiled by founding member John Brannon from his personal archive of cassette tapes, then transferred, mixed, and mastered by Grammy® Award–winning producer Bobby Emmett (known for his work with Sturgill Simpson, Jack White, and The Sights).
The collection captures the band’s full-on sonic groove assault in its purest, most unadulterated, and gloriously abrasive form. Highlights include such hard-hitting classics as “Here We Go Again,” recorded live for NYC’s famed WNYU in 1990.
If ever a band deserved an LP of live material…
Getting so obsessed with a band that you book a local show just to see them play — we need more freaks like that in the world, and that’s what Merge Records’ Mike Krol did this spring when he put together a bill featuring himself, Shannon Shaw’s new group Voilà!, and this not-so-known New Orleans duo Twisted Teens, Krol’s recent fixation, here in Los Angeles. “I blasted it in the car at night with the windows down, tracked down records, mailordered merch like I was 16, and all of a sudden I felt excited about THE CREATION OF MUSIC again,” he wrote on Instagram. “I couldn’t believe a band I didn’t even know existed at the beginning of this year made — quite possibly — my favorite record of the past 2 decades.” Amen, Mike. This shit tears.
On 21st December 2025, Swedish post-hardcore stalwarts Refused played their final gig in the group’s hometown of Umeå. A sweaty and teary affair, Refused unleashed a rolling broadside over a brisk 90 minutes, unfurling the entirety of the band’s dedication to weighty and outspoken hardcore in a fierce and conclusive salvo.
As tastefully monochrome images of the band embracing were dragged and dropped onto social pages, you would assume that after thirty-plus years of sonic vitriol the group might sit back for a bit of R&R; a bit of fika maybe? Maybe this would have been the right move considering the sum of their next enterprise: doom metal/free jazz/noise-rock project, Backengrillen.
Comprising Refused’s vocalist Dennis Lyxzén,…
One of many bands to have explored the country’s more perilous frontiers of DIY culture, Brighton-based bass & drum sludge-punk-noise-rock duo Human Leather finally slam their fury down on tape with their long-awaited debut album, Here Comes the Mind, There Goes the Body. An album that underlines the world’s incessant failures, Human Leather don’t mince their words, rightfully pissed off and unafraid to tells us about it.
The tripwire tension between the two-piece assault team of Amée Chanter and Thomas Close is like a calcified ball of bile and rage. Renowned for their intense live shows, so often the sharp-edged ferocity of a band’s live performance is blunted between the studio walls. Not the case here, however, and it’s thanks to…
To parse the logic of Sex Mad, one must first inhabit the isolation of 1985 Victoria, British Columbia: a provincial capital where middle-class security doubled as a picturesque cemetery for the newly wed and nearly dead. Here, as the looming artifice of Expo 86 threatened to modernize the coast, the Pacific horizon acted as a literal dead-end and the Wright brothers’ basement as a laboratory. While the global hardcore scene was calcifying into a thudding caricature – The Exploited’s gurning pantomime merging with the metal-hocked bluster of the US crossover set – Rob and John Wright were busy deconstructing the very physics of the power trio.
When guitarist Andy Kerr completed the circuit, internal pressure reached a critical mass.
For years, Angel Du$t was Justice Tripp’s balmy reprieve from Trapped Under Ice. When he fronted the Baltimore hardcore band, he cursed out ice queens and swore he’d “stay cold forevermore” to protect his heart. These tormented songs were molded by the trauma and violence that Tripp endured during his hardscrabble upbringing. Angel Du$t’s 2014 debut, A.D., with its pink cover art and perky pop-punk sound, showed that he was learning to leave the past behind and warm up a bit. On subsequent Angel Du$t records, the music got even softer, the imagery cozier, and Tripp’s lyrics, which once focused almost solely on heartbreak and regret, became intoxicated by the fumes of romance (“Deep Love,” “Big Ass Love,” “Love Slam”) and rock’n’roll…