Greetings,
I hope you are doing well wherever you are. Let's get right to the music for my show for this month...
I absolutely love this band Caution out of Alabama (really). They put me in the mind of PJ Harvey and similar great unfussy guitar driven post-punk. I can't wait to hear more stuff from them in the future.
This track from La Securité starts off like some kind of long lost Devo track, but once the vocals kick in things get darker and stranger, which is a good thing.
I love all of the great current music coming out of Turkey- but can we please call it something other than Turkish Psych? This band here, Ayyuka, reminds me a lot of Khun Narin out of Thailand.
Up next we have a track from Nagrobki, from Poland. They have a few releases on Bandcamp, digital singles and a few albums and EPs, and they try out a wide variety of music styles. I really like the semi-ska approach to this song.
I don't know much at all about the band Zipper, from Melbourne, but what I've heard so far I really like. They are on the Spoilsport label, and I try my best to keep up with anything put out by Spoilsport and Cheersquad, who both feature some great new Australian bands.
I first heard this song by The Shapes on one of those magazine CDs that were really common in the early 2000s- probably it was from CMJ New Music Monthly, which was a great magazine for its short lifespan. I think I bought the CD via CD Baby, which was a cool avenue for bands to self-release music before Bandcamp came along.
Lambrini Girls, Die Spitz, and a few others are doing a great job keeping the snotty punk genre alive and well. Cheers!
I bought this CD from Kampec Dolores on one of my last trips to Budpest (back in the mid 2010s; sadly I have not been back to Hungary since 2015). It looks like there are plenty of good stores there now, but at that time the only good store was Wave Music, which was fantastic. Sometimes I would just buy just about anything in the "local" bin, even if I hadn't heard it first.
If memory serves somebody from the Pete Power camp emailed me with a copy of this song, which I really like. It has that early-mid Sub Pop feel to it.
I have all of the original Crass records on vinyl, but I haven't picked up all of the "Crassical Collection" editions, because they have been crazy expensive to get here in 'Merica.
Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa were childhood friends but they didn't perform together all that much. Most of their recorded joint activity took place during this Bongo Fury tour. The recent anniversary box set edition of Bongo Fury is well worth getting for the additional live material of Frank and the Captain.
I'm a bit surprised that the punk band Rāde hasn't made a bigger splash. No problem, you know about them, so enjoy them now before they turn into a monster success like Die Spitz (no disrespect to the latter, I love them, but sheesh have they gotten big).
Speaking of big, Angine De Poitrine sure have tapped into the success vein at the right time. Like Die Spitz, they deserve it- they are a great band. Never have I seen anyone master loop pedals like these guys. That two-necked bass/guitar isn't for showing off- it really gets used to alternate between bass and guitar runs.
I have to thank the fine folks over at Fire Talk Records for the email notifying me about Robber Robber. I love this song. It has tentacles in all kinds of directions- driving post-punk, a whiff of trip hop, power pop, etc.
Speaking of power pop, there is a certain strain of power pop from the past few years that almost exclusively comes from Australia and New Zealand. I can't really put my finger on it, but this song is a great example. Maybe a sort of second bloom of the Dunedin sound?
Then we are on to the tortured art of Lucrecia Dalt. This is definitely the kind of music where you pick up something new each time you listen.
Your Future Our Clutter came out two years after Imperial Wax Solvent, and this for me marks one of those changes in The Fall "eras." This is probably my favorite of the last five studio albums.
I spent about three weeks in Latvia in 2014, and while there I bought as many Latvian CDs as I could. This is from one of the many various artists compilations I bought- V/A comps are a great way to try out local music overseas and in many cases they are a better price than regular releases.
More travel memories: on a trip to Brazil around 2010 I found one record shop within walking distance of my hotel, and as usual I unleashed my credit card and bought as much local/national music as I could. This was one of my prizes. It has a very late 1980s L.A. punk feel to it.
Unfortunately there hasn't been anything new from Dermabrasion for over two and a half years. I hope that changes. Their material is on the Hand Drawn Dracula label, which puts out nothing but great music.
This Alejas track is from the same cool various artists comp from Latvia that I mentioned above. There is SO much great music that I can recommend out of the Baltic nations.
Suitor... another great band on the amazing Feel It label. I just looked it up and I don't have a physical copy of it. Oops. I'll change that next paycheck.
Then up next we have Spiritual Law with that haunted opening before launching into that kind of punk that marks the transition from hardcore to D-Beat. Great stuff.
I can't get enough of Indikator B, a great punk band out of Croatia. There is that dark, gloomy presence that used to cover a lot of Eastern European punk.
Hmm, here we have yet another really cool song from another various artists compilation from Latvia. Playful and catchy.
Spain is one of the leading exporters of the heavy stuff- all kinds of metal and the heavier side of punk. If this interests you then check out the Trip To Spain release from Weedian (on Bandcamp) or just about any of the albums on the wonderful Discos Macarras label.
Tiikeri are from Finland and they have a really cool old school 1977-1978 vibe to their music. Even the opening seconds of this song reminds me of "Angels With Dirty Faces" by Sham 69.
It took three years from the demo release of Pletyka to this current EP. I hope they can seriously compress their timeline. The world needs more of this wistful dreampop.
There is an organization called Punk 4 The Homeless that puts out some great various artists compilations for a good cause. As is the case with other V/A heavy labels/resources like Weedian, I don't know if I will ever get caught up on researching each and every band, but I at least do my best to listen to as much of the music as I can.
Apartmanlar are from Turkey and though I generally like old and new "Turkish psych" music, it's nice to hear some driving post-punk coming from the streets of Istanbul.
This short new LP from Pura Mania is really good- it might land on my Top 10 for 2026, who knows?
This great high tempo punk song is from Chien Flic, out of France, and their digital releases are Name Your Own Price on Bandcamp, so go! Go! Go!
Do you want the bad news or the good news? The good news is that thisalbum by Voces De Ultratumba is excellent. The bad news is that it looks like it is the only release so far.
Forty Two, who I think are from North Carolina, have a few releases on the great regional (as in North Carolina and South Carolina) label River Monster. Their music is super cool and I'll get some more stuff in future shows.
This month's show ends with an electronic instrumental from an artist called Mythologen. It's from a single on the Hoga Nord label out of Sweden, and I like most of the things that label puts out. They seem to specialize in a lot of the listening kind of electronica, which I like, as opposed to the club/rave/disco kind of electronica, which isn't my thing.
Enjoy the show!
