JERALD

 

No idea where this came from (welcome to my hoard), but there are mobile numbers and no email addresses in the insert so I'm gonna guess 1990s. Music is kinda prog/indie with Japanese pop overtones (vocals particularly) and a serious MINUTEMEN bent on the last track. It's overall really...sweet. Sometimes we need a nice thing in our day, and Jerald are very nice. Also, is the cover upside down...? I think maybe it is.

SUMMER

G*U*N*N*

 

These OC punks just get the fuck in, get the busy and get the fuck out. Early POISON IDEA vibes and heavy Southern California dirty beach hardcore, with interview clips and shit between tracks. It's so deadly simple and raw....it's what you need. 

I WANNA MAKE A REQUEST

LAST QUOKKA

 

Goddamn, these Aussies are just straight fukkn fire. It's as if the Birdmen themselves crash landed in a pile of early '00s punk infused indie - I'm talking NEW RACE by way of STROKES or FRANZ FERDINAND reimagining HITMEN here, and Perth's LAST QUOKKA are flawlessly on point for all of it. Jam "My Girl" into "Piggy" and know that you've found it...and you can find a lot more here. 

RED DIRT

...and there were grass stains on my jeans...

EVICTION PARTY

 

I may have occasionally dismissed Region Rock in these pages and I have surely disparaged the subgenre in person, so imagine my distress when I hear something that clicks just right and I realize that...."fuck, I think this is that subgenre I casually knock without really knowing what the fuck I'm talking about." We all get judgy from time to time so I'm not going to beat myself up over it, and I'm not even sure that that is what this is anyway so there's that too. But when I hear something that clicks just right, I keep listening. The music sounds strained, the musicians themselves sound strained - as if even these relatively simple melodic punk songs are just out of reach. The vocals nail that JAWBREAKER by way of DOOM after three packs of Lucky Strikes vibe, and if it weren't for the clean guitar some of these tracks ("My Debts To You" particularly) could have been born in a Rust Belt basement in the 1990s. Maybe the appeal of Region Rock is the darkness-by-way-of-hope energy that permeates the sound in a way that transcends the music or the lyrics. Or maybe that's just EVICTION PARTY....or maybe I don't really know what I'm talking about. That's always a possibility worth considering. I'm gonna have more coffee now. 

EVICTION PARTY

MY SURF CRYPT

 

Just a real solid mix of underground surf bangers put together by someone called Cold Vomit. THE REVELS, CHIYO & THE CRESCENTS, THE VULCANES, THE FIREBALLS, MANUEL & THE RENEGADES, THE PAGENTS and more, all presented with requisite crackle. I challenge you to find a more perfect chilling in the afternoon and into the night compilation, and when you do...? Share it with me.

MY SURF CRYPT

PLASTIC HEAP

 

I love a band that feels like they were born in the wrong time and place. A new century grimy punk band from Ohio who would have made more sense playing with TRAGIC MULATTO and FRIGHTWIG but here they are in my living room with a lurch and a squelch and a mid tempo burner called "Wild Strawberries" that channels all of the right kinds of sonic damage. I posted another tape a few years ago (it's good too) and I'm going to revisit that one as soon as I finish writing these words, because we need more bands that don't quite fit, you know?

RED TAPE

JIMMY C. NEWMAN

 

Spent last weekend in sunny Fresno, California shopping for a couch. Hit a few furniture super stores and scoured second hand market places online and mostly struck out before we made an appointment to meet with a kid selling a slightly stained brown number for a cool $75. Looked comfy enough and we are probably going to stain it anyway so we headed over....but wait, there's a Goodwill on the way so we decided to pop in. The couch selection was atrocious, but they had a few tapes (and let's be honest here, that's the real reason I suggested stopping) and I snagged some private press '80s white mystic shit and this jammer from Louisiana's JIMMY C. NEWMAN. Jimmy C. Newman & Cajun Country was released in 1986 with his radio hits and time on the Louisiana Hayride barely visible in the rearview mirror, but "Rhinestone Cajun Rides Again" is a dusty floor '80s country stomper of the highest caliber, proudly announcing that Newman had assembled new ensemble and his brand of Louisiana swing was back in action. The cajun influence that defined Newman's career is blatant on tracks like "Tawna Woo Woo" and "Cochon De Lait," adding a distinct swing to a tape that is filled with could-have-been hits like "Good Ole Boys From Louisiana" and "My Toot Toot." We ended up grabbing that $75 couch from a nice kid who was willing to deliver it for a few extra bucks, and it turned out the stain probably isn't bodily fluid. Basically? It was a really nice day with a few really good scores. 

JIMMY C. NEWMAN & CAJUN COUNTRY