Pencet Dadi Pelem
Harapan
(SoundPOV)
Confronting us are five kamikaze swoops bearing chordal armament. This formidable fist-unit was birthed in 2011, and songs presented here have seen previous releases in varied packages. None of which ameliorates the savagery. Hospital beds await.
Recommended: "We Are Street Punk," "Do You Remember Me," "Singosari," "The New Generation"
Videos: "We Are Street Punk" "Do You Remember Me" "The New Generation" live (21:17 2023)
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Convict Class
Not the Enemy
(Randale Records)
When last heard from (2024's Generation of Discontent), Australia's CC were leveraging chords as bombardments, pretty much slapping into basketcase-dom everybody in the place. That remains fitting appraisal, though mention must also be made of earnest (albeit unapologetically brutish) messaging. Oi! gets it fucking done.
Recommended: "War," "Loser," "Old School Punk," "Anger Management," "Only Fans," "Not the Enemy," "Maximum Impact"
Videos: "Loser" "Only Fans" "Not the Enemy"
Yellow Stitches
Back With a Gang
(Friends Family Forever Records)
Oi!'s anthemic, working man bellicosity thundered athwart each square cube of the stage, at last December's FTC Day #2 show in Boston. ("Whoa-oh-oh!," every crowd throat roared along.) The have-a-go heroes of Yellow Stitches showed what shiny pates swarming before them doubtlessly already grasped: That the kick-over, smash-past hardies were perfect complements to other fest attractions like Haywire, Skinhead, and Conservative Military Image. 1980s-fashion Streetpunk will kick your ass, should you think it ever ghosted the scene.
Recommended: "Sugar Oi!," "Can't Catch Me," "First Time," "Lazy Dog," "I Want Em Dead," "Rolex Skins," "Yellow Stitches Christmas"
Videos: "Sugar Oi!" "Can't Catch Me" "I Want Em Dead" FTC 2025 live (23:43)
The Troubled
Fever Dream
(Self-issued)
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That we're even able to hear these PsychoPunk snarls proves "a guitar is more important than a machine gun," as Alex Harvey once insisted. For several years, this neck-vein-bulging Kyiv group's members intermittently paused recording the presented hyper-velocitous bursts, having found studio efforts stymied by warfare, blackouts, and personnel disruption. Fortunately, they told challenges to go fuck themselves. ("Nothing ever gonna bring us down!") And that's cause for helter-skelter jubilation. Because the product they ultimately wrought is furiousness in song forms, likely to leap up and axe-handle denne svitlo out of anyone who looks at it funny.
Recommended: "Stargazer," "Hated," "We Stand," "This Summer," "Я ropю," "Stilletos"
Video: "Hated" "This Summer" "Stilletos"
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Ploegendienst
"Asfalt" "Surinaamse Broodjes" singles
(Excelsior Recordings / Ploegendienst)
Blastforce singer Ray Fuego (SMIB) throws in with have-a-go heroes from Adolf Butler and Aux Raus to crank volume and lay waste to all creatures great and small. "Figuratively, it is a band that wants to destroy every venue in as short a time as possible," brags Excelsior, home base for these "anti-everything" flaying Dutchmen. Hurtling from grooves' hidey-holes is Oi! that greets with roundhouses and thrives on kindled chaos while decrying annoyances systemic and mundane. Crank volume and have an ambulance on speed dial.
Videos: "Asfalt" "Surinaamse Boodjes" live (PinkPop 34:36)
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Various
Compilado 25
(Punk Con Punk)
Anarchy en español. As is always so with voluminous band compilations, merit is inconstant. But the finest presented boast enough strength to flatten heads, and techniques honed but not la-di-da. Translators are not needed; demolition rocketeering is a universal language in our underground. Not only will Punk never strike its colors, so long as mifits with perpetual scowls and guitars in hands stalk sidewalks, but every geographic outpost has been molested by surly shouters. Which is pretty damn cool.
Recommended: "Esto Es Madrid" (The Rejects), "La Basura Que Somos" (Viejos Tiempos), "Tema De Adrián" (Fracasso Italiano), "Policía Corrupto" (Los Puta), "Don't Try This At Home" (Whatever!)), "Bhopal" (Punkonia), "Perros Plaga" (Terranos Baldíos), "Tranki" (Qué Dirán), "Alianza" (Alianza), "Alta Frecuencia Que Cura El Dolor" (Hernán Dolor)
Videos: "Esto es Madrid" "Whatever" "Tema De Adrián" "Perros Plaga"
Stomper 98
s/t
(598 Records)
Righteous indignation swings knuckles. Mobs of shop-floor yobs, heads shaved and boots laced tightly, storm down boulevards as impassioned, anthemic Oi! pounds out its proclamations. This is the good fight, the crusade of the average man whose labors build things and turn economic gears. And barre chords bruise
(Misapprehensions fester in benighted quarters. This statement from the band's website slices away shit: "Stomper 98 see themselves as a working-class Skinhead band and sing about what's happening around them. We don't care about your skin color or your background. There's no room for racists or fascists here.")
Recommended: "Der Stachel im Arsch," "Erkennst Du dich Weider," "Auf Die Stimmen Einer Generation," "Deutschland im Chaos," "Alle Gegen Alle, Jeder Gagen Jeden," "25 Jahre," "Alex - Schatten der Nacht," "So Lange Her," "Achtundneunzig Nächte"
Videos: "Der Stachel im Arsch" "Erkennst Du dich Weider" "Alle Gegen Alle, Jeder Gagen Jeden" "Schatten der Nacht"
Bastardes
No Glory vinyl LP or CD
(Sunny Bastards)
Credit is due these Swedish spark plugs for both witty songcraft mindful of melody, and their sure-handed governance of gingery rollick. Though the union of organic hooks and brawn is one not easily realized, it glories in its culmination, here. ("The beast with two backs," as scrawled the Avon icon.) One appreciates that oversight of firepower-at-hand makes for redoubled effectiveness. "I can't never, ever, live one more day / Without Punk Rock in my life I won't stay!" Testify, brethren.
Recommended: "Wild Young and Free," "Boys in Blue," "Broken Dreams," "Born a Loser," "Run Away," "Raise Your Voice," "No Glory," "Pint of Beer," "One More Day"
Videos: "One More Day" "Boys in Blue"
Subculture Squad
Hangover in Hanover vinyl 7" and digital album
(Klabautermann Records)
"I'll never get drunk no more, I swear," pledges the have-a-go shouter, in the titular offering. With the next lines, though - "But when the weekend comes, I know / work is done and I'm ready to go!" - he dives back into elbow-bending trim. The instrumental barrage suits balls-of-feet brashness throughout. The jaw jutted "Working Class" boasts of blue-collar pridefulness (turning ones mind to Haymaker) as guitar hurtles ever forward. Drum wreck-about fires all to extremes in the blunt and clipped "FYA," killing off such standpatters as may be wheezing within chord-range.
Recommended: "Hangover in Hanover," "Working Class, "Fuck Your Attitude"
No new video available. Here's an earlier one: "Sieben"
Lion's Law
Evermore
(Pirates Press Records)
Recommended: "Paris," "Brother," "Back In Time," "Sewer Rats," "Extinction," "The World Is On Fire," "Before Your Eyes," "Evermore," "The City That Never Dies," "I Ran (So FarAway)"
Video: "Sewer Rats" "I Ran (So Far Away)" (live)
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