• Best New Punk Songs: CorMae, The Freebies, Lady Lazarus + Mesh

    “RUT” by CorMae

    “RUT’s” about the constant and degrading search for menial labor, simply because someone’s got to pay the bills. It’s a punk rock tale that dates back at least to Patti Smith’s “Piss Factory.” Austin’s CorMae add fresh voices to that evergreen chorus on this cut from Everything is SO GREAT!, a no-skips-warranted set of songs that came out in June.

     “Friends” by The Freebies

    A four-piece from Los Angeles, The Freebies clearly dig ’60s girl groups (some of the best and most crucial music committed to wax), jangle pop and the first-wave punks that revived the two-and-a-half minute single. A recently shared video for “Friends” showpieces a harmony-drenched tune about not returning someone enamored with you’s feelings.

    “(Wanna Be a) Riot Grrrl” by Lady Lazarus

    Berlin-via-Sydney band Lady Lazarus fly the Le Tigre flag high on this, a standout track from June 26 release Dichotomy. It’s danceable (complete with rock ‘n’ roll throwback “na na nas”) while mixing humor with a serious call to action. Other angsty anthems for a new generation of feminist punks include “Don’t Need U” and “PARTY!”

    “Boots on the Pavement” by Mesh

    Philadelphia’s Mesh fine-tuned and polished its garagey post-punk approach on long-awaited debut album No Fun At All. “Boots on the Pavement” best exemplifies how smoothly Allison Durham and Sims Hardin blend as both guitarists and singers. Few things top co-ed vocals when they’re executed this seamlessly. They’re joined by a rhythm section that truly sets the band apart from most peers: bassist Tom Riese and drummer Steve Darling.

  • Book Review: ‘The Dead Milkmen’ By Tyler Sonnichsen

    At just under 200 pages, Tyler Sonnichsen’s definitive biography of The Dead Milkmen can be read across a couple of mundane weekdays. However, there’s a lot to digest as the author digs deep into lore that far predates the band’s early ’80s emergence from Philadelphia’s hardcore scene. Even diehards should learn a thing or two, from the origin of “KKSUCK2” to the connection between “Beige Sunshine’s” unsettling choir of children and Austin’s now-defunct Fun Fun Fun Fest.

    Sonnichsen shows he’s clever like his subjects with such storytelling devices as a chapter that frames the band’s formation and early ups and downs around a series of traffic accidents.

    It’s informative and entertaining enough for me to want to seek out the author’s other book, Capitals of Punk. Per a description online, it “tells the story of Franco-American circulation of punk music, politics and culture, focusing on the legendary Washington, DC hardcore punk scene and its less-heralded counterpart in Paris.”

  • Best New Punk Songs: Cel Ray, Doom Club, Judy, PLRLS + Radon

    In the start-and-stop history of No Spectators, we’ve tried a few different ways of reviewing new music. For this go-around, let’s revisit our playlist idea from 2024, minus the icky Spotify bootlicking.

    “Treat Economy” by Cel Ray

    One of the better albums of the year, Cel Rayzer makes Cel Ray sound like a force in the post-punky garage underground and a Third Man signing waiting to happen. Closing track “Treat Economy’s” our pick because it serves up a helping of the cheeky humor we got in spades from The Coathangers, Tacocat and other feminist punk notables from the aughts and teens.

    “No Sense Makes Sense” by Doom Club

    Doom Club continues the UK post-punk tradition of amalgamizing disparate modern styles into something equally angsty and danceable. Think PiL, Gang of Four, New Age Steppers and other usual suspects but with modern technology in place of lo-fi dub. “No Sense Makes Sense” and its killer bass parts make up the digital flipside of “World Wide On It.”

    “She Got Me in Her Hands” by Judy

    Judy is the LA-based duo of Blue Broderick (Diners) and Leah Levinson (Agriculture). The home recording project formed last December and quickly led to two EPs’ worth of material. The second of these EPs, Death of a Ladies’ Mutt, arrived on Aug. 6 and included this pop-rock nugget about lesbian lust– and the resignation required if it goes unrequited.

    “Riff Randell’s Revenge” by PLRLS

    As the title telegraphs, this one’s chock full of Ramones references, both musically and lyrically. However, PLRLS owe as much here sonically to The Briefs/Cute Lepers and other poppy electro-punks.

    “Riff Randell’s Revenge” appears on the July release Sleeping in a Dress. Per YouTube, PLRLS is a five-piece band from Baltimore consisting of “a disgraced nightclub owner (Ottobar), a shattered TV personality (Ace of Cakes), an ex-chauffeur and a has-been graphic designer.”

    “Slåss” by Radon

    It wouldn’t be shocking if this one had turned out to be from a long-lost 7-inch from nearly 50 years ago, as this tune and flipside “Gymnasiekrök” don’t fall far from the Eddie and the Hot Rods or Vibrators trees. Instead, it’s by a young Swedish trio. Amazing stuff.

  • Team Dresch Release New Song and Video ‘Growing Underground’

    Portland queercore trailblazers Team Dresch’s latest call to arms, “Growing Underground” arrived today (Thurs., Aug. 8) along with its shadow puppeteered music video. Band member Kaia Wilson gets credited as one of the visual artists along with Ponyboy, Robbie Claxton, Rhianna “Free” Atwood and two talents from Coraline and ParaNorman: Cynthia Star and director Jason Thibodeaux . (No word yet on who drew the vegenaise jar.)

    “Boiled down to its core, ‘Growing Underground’ imagines a future rooted not in fear, but in love,” reads a statement from the band. “It’s a place of germination. It’s the root system. The mycelial network. The place where growth begins long before anyone above the surface realizes it’s happening. The music mirrors the song’s message: the Right can try to erase us, but it will never extinguish the people who believe in the inviolability of all life and our planet. The closing images become increasingly expansive: ‘We become the ocean / We become trees’ – these aren’t simply symbols of survival, they’re ecosystems. Trees provide shelter. Oceans sustain life. The song imagines shared communities becoming the very thing that nutures future life. Love is embodied through chosen families, interconnection and the networks that have always sustained one another.”

    “Growing Underground” will appear on Furthermore (out Sept. 18 via Jealous Butcher Records). It’s the first new Team Dresch album in 30 years, following 1995’s Personal Best and 1996’s Captain My Captain. In case you missed it, here’s prior single “One Song’s” music video.

    What else jumps out from the press release? A trio of California bills in November include opening support from fellow queercore icons Longstocking and The Third Sex. More on their greatness some other time.

  • Underground Excavations: Gayrilla Biscuits’ ‘The Demos’ EP (1998)

    A personal favorite suggestion from the Bored 2 Life podcast, parody band Gayrilla Biscuits epitomize mysterious gay guy hardcore of the straight edge variety. Meaning little is known about the willfully obscure group aside from a quartet of stage names (Gay Capo, HomO’ Mahoney, Mike Fudge and Zack Gay La Rocha) and a pair of short-run 7-inches.

    As for the liberating lampoons themselves, they’re as juvenile as you’d hope without running the joke into the ground. The comedy starts with the cover art, which hat-tips NYHC supergroup Project X.

    Here’s a track listing that identifies the original songs:

    • “Flaming Ass Still Burns” = “Flame Still Burns” by Youth of Today
    • “Degragaytion” = “Degradation” by Gorilla Biscuits
    • “Get Hard” = “Standing Hard” by Youth of Today
    • “No Homosexual Surrender” = “No Spiritual Surrender” by Inside Out
    • “Nailed In The Ass” = “Nailed To The X” by Bold
    • “Gay Till Death” = “True Till Death” by Chain of Strength
    • “Fags Like You” = “Friends Like You” by Sick of It All
    • “Gay Edge” = “Straight Edge” by Minor Threat

    “Standing Hard” in particular needed very little change to sound homoerotic.

    In 2006, the righteous shit-stirrers at Buddyhead Records brought us a second Gayrilla Biscuits 7-inch, the Hung Queens Can Suck It EP (a reference to Judge’s Chung King Can Suck It album). More on it separately someday because I own a copy.

  • Underground Excavations: “Crevice Tool” by BAMFF (1987)

    Here’s something delightfully peculiar from the prime decade of artsy new wave and the formative era of music videos. Singer Danice Macleod’s credentials as a classically-trained violinist add a haunting tone while pointing to the widespread influence of The Raincoats. And as modern comparisons go, a herky-jerky song about something as mundane as a vacuum cleaner’s crevice tool attachments would suit Snooper.

    “Crevice Tool” appears on the 1987 album Come Outside, which goes for cheap.

    Macleod and BAMFF co-founders Colin Griffiths and Rodney Graham previously played in another notable Vancouver new wave band: the graffiti tag- or vanity plate-worthy UJ3RK5 (“You Jerk”… The “5” is silent.). The collective of artists and other misfits included Jeff Wall, who’s gone on to become a world-renown photographer. My fellow old heads might know UJ3RK5’s “Eisenhower and the Hippies” via Man… Or Astroman’s cover.

  • Paper Jam Sign With K, Share ‘Lovely Girl’ Video

    A twee-pop-inspired band you should know from Denton, Texas received a stamp of approval from a shield you can trust. K Records announced recently that it’ll pair with its Perennial Records offshoot this fall for a reissue of Paper Jam’s self-released debut album This And That.

    Paper Jam’s jangly gems draw comparisons to Heavenly (fittingly, the band namechecked another Amelia Fletcher project in Talulah Gosh to See/Saw). Band members Natalie Winkler (vocals, guitar), Cecilia Case-Hernandez (bass, vocals), Mason Blair (guitar), Natalia De la Cruz (keys) and Taylor Rivers (drums) also bond over a shared love of one of the best by-products of UK punk: Dolly Mixture. See/hear their youthful exuberance below.

    The reissue arrives on Oct. 23.

    READ MORE: ‘Dream Come True’ by Cola Cubes

  • Underground Excavations: “Erection” by Mag & The Suspects (1981)

    Mag & The Suspects (sometimes styled Mag and The Suspects or Meg and The Suspects (and even Mac and The Suspects via a label misprint)) begin our roundup of obscurities found online or in record bins.

    Details remain scant about the (French?) minimalist band and its 1981 pairing of the glibly delivered “Thousands Dead” with should-be synth-pop and post-punk classic “Erection.” The latter’s a personal favorite that’s comparable to Delta 5’s “Anticipation” in both topic and tone. Those who know know– and in one case made a fan video.

    If Discogs is to be trusted, Suspects member Ruth Failure played on everything from an album by French-Irish singer-songwriter Guy Maxwell to a low-fidelity French disco 7-inch by Casta Blitz. Otherwise, there’s no easy-to-find info about her or her bandmates Mag Morley and Fabrice Dusapin (which is also the name of a celebrated architect).

    The Suspects’ second dance came in 1984 via the CBS 7-inch “Meg and The Suspects” B/W “Fascination Tango!” It’s more polished and new wave than its delightfully low-budget predecessor (and still worth a digital spin).

    There’s at least one “Erection” cover of note. Montreal-based synth-pop artist Jef Barbara interpreted it for the 2013 album Soft to the Touch.