Blunt
Detonando Emociones! Three-track EP
(Del Suncho Records)
Just as I doubt anyone anticipated that Argentina would in 2026 produce speedy thunderations recalling the 1970s Heartbreakers (by which, I of course mean the cool ones), this most certainly will veer into collections amassed by Born to Losers.
Recommended: "Agosta," "Pierdo el rumbo," "Aún te extraño"
Video: "Agosta" "Pierdo el rumbo" "Aún te extraño"
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The Kings of Outer Space
The Things That Make Us Strange
(Western Star Recording)
"Imagine somehow combining an observatory telescope with a Criswell Ouija board, then hooking the whole thing into a monster amplifier" was this writer's description of the Kings' 2019 Ghost Radio. Those words serve in equally good stead for portraying the disc now before us, though a fitting addition would be to observe UK tailors must straightaway sew up silver aluminized nylon spacesuits/straitjackets with velvet lapels.
(Tracks 1-6 first appeared on 2022's Last Exit to Spaceville, while 7-14 are taking first steps.)
Recommended: "Test Pilot," "Moonbuggy Baby," "Doomsday Surf Club," "Big Ol' Monster," "Outa This World," "Nature or Nurture (live at Western Star)," "Life's Too Short"
Videos: "Moonbuggy Baby" "Big Ol' Monster" "Nature or Nurture"
Sanngre
Thrash Core Punk Hard Brutality
(Guns of Brixton Records)
Force times velocity equals Sanngre.
Recommended: "Mata Idiotas," "Hil edo Hil," "El Inquisidor," "Rodarán Cabezas," "Tus Risas No Mandan," "Volverán a Saltar"
Videos: "Mata Idiotas" "Hil edo Hil" "Rodaran Cabezeas"
J.C. Thomaz and the Missing Slippers
s/t
(Slovenly Recordings)
I know it'll be hard to believe, but I'm 96% positive I encountered these happily delirious stimulatons in a forbidden-substance 1978 hallucinogenic episode: Maila Nurmi was at the frying pan, Jimmy Carter was passed out on a bean-bag chair, and a composite party band including day-glo flamboyances from the Dolls, 13th Floor Elevators, Cramps -- and innumerable, determinedly insurgent 1967 middle-class neighborhood Garage bands no one ever heard of -- was swinging ga-ga chops omnidirectionally. Pheromones were running down paneled walls.
You hadda be there.
(When the guys with butterfly nets run bed check and discover this latex/fishnets menagerie absent, they're gonna be out looking.)
Recommended: "Cheat R Bad," "She's a Wave," "Kelly Lynn," "Over Me," "Unchained Insanity," "Walk the Streets," "Shit on the Street"
Videos: "Cheat R Bad" "She's a Wave" "Kelly Lynn" (live) "Isadore's Peace of Mind" (live)
Hope that the Afterdarks will again stalk
Descending crumbling gray stairs, taking care not to stumble, you uncover a cobwebbed receptacle. Once the lid is cracked, ethereal spirits billow out and vanish into upper darkness. Recordings stacked within are robust and rough; atop their storminess ride declarations of vitriol and raw passion.
The Amazing Royal Crowns
Payback Live
(Kingdom Recordings/Monolyth Record Group)
Thundersome, torrential rainsquall Payback Live assumed shelf display in 2001. (It was preceded by the group's self-titled 1998 debut disc, and soon followed by Royal.) The live CD is now available in digital form on Bandcamp. Readers here will notice videos below are of mint vintage; having readopted original title, the Amazing Royal Crowns continue their Punk/Swing/'billy crusade, tearing up countryside and fortunate shoutalong fans alike. Fever recognizes no calendar page. (Early this year, the combo played shows w/saxman Tony from Hi Fi & the Roadburners.)
Recommended: "Baby's Out on Bail," "Shivering in the Corner," "Minute with the Maker," "Scene of the Crime," "Trouble at the Bali Hai," "Luckiest Man Alive"
Videos: "Baby's Out on Bail" (live 2025) "Scene of the Crime" (live 2025) "Luckiest Man Alive" (live 2026)
The Psychodelics
Small But Mighty EP
(Psychodelic Records)
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Rising from the lab tilt-table is a creature stitched from outsider stylings. Punk, Psycho, and Rockabilly flesh are joined in crazy-quilt calculations that couldn't seem more torpedo-savory to quiffed wrecking-pit grapplers who have mail delivered to all-night monster-movie marathons.
Recommended: "Small but Mighty," "We'll Never Die," "Talk To the Dead," "Shut Up and Drive," "Good Kitty"
Videos: "Small but Mighty" "We'll Never Die" "Good Kitty"
X (Erik Hinderer, lead guitarist/songwriter)
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Atomic Leopards
Hypnogogic Hellucinations
(Atomic)
Spanish brothers Santi and David Lluch learned thoroughly lessons imparted by past Blues, Rockabilly, and Country masters (including as Hellbilly Club founders). Now, the axe-swinging throatist and his bass-slinging sibling pool knacks with ex-HC drum demon Marc Illas to contrive fuzz-dripping spike-jive that laces its projectiles with kool venomousness that gyrates on the wild side.
Recommended: "Devil Car," "Hello Mr. Bates," "Ready for the Blackout," "One More Battle," "I Wanna Be a Punk," "Everybody's Movin'"
Videos: "Hello Mr. Bates" (Official video) "Ready for the Blackout" (Videoclip) "I Wanna Be a Punk"
13 Cats: Too cool for planet Earth
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As formidable as that gallery might appear in print, it devastated when behind mics.
A felicitously aberrant rascal mission whose storied big beat-ministers hailed from glory-scribed walks the Polecats, Rockats, and Stray Cats, 13 Cats flickered brilliantly, albeit shortly.
They crafted stunningly novel admixtures of literate, fantastic lyricism and burly roots musics jetted up into tomorrow. Much-loved Rockabilly nuggets, newly drunk on adrenaline joy juice, were catapulted through flick-knife Punk and Psycho back alleys. And self-penned, splintered reflector tableaus reeled crazily amidst jubilant uproar.
One brief lyrical citation illustrates sufficiently:
She walks the Information Highway, he's on vine from Monday to Friday. They get together when the weekend comes. She digs Sinatra, he beats his drums.
Jungle Man and Robot Girl, victims of the modern world.
Sadly, waxings are sparse. 2001's in the beginning (Revel Yell Music) preserved studio reanimations of Charlie Feathers, the Rockin' R's, and Bill Allen and the Backbeats' shout/jump standards, as well as band originals (including "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon" and "Flesh for Andy Warhol") captured on radio and at live spectacles.
2003's full-length 13 Tracks (Raucous) presented nearly all freshly-coined jaunts -- like "Leather Straitjacket," "Jungle Man, Robot Girl," and "Snap, Crackle, and Hiss" -- the sole exception being 13 Cats' conflagratory take on Bill Allen and the Backbeats' 1958 "Please Give Me Something."
The swaggering supergroup's irregular brainstorming was further typified by originals "Poison Candy," "Chanting for Cadillacs," "Sex Hex," and "Hell Bop." In each, raceway rocketing that likely stole committed witnesses' oxygen proved the equal of message uncanniness.
(Two other selections, "13 Cats" and "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon," had turned up in 1999 film The Rage: Carrie 2.)
Subsequent years brought two or three repackagings, rarities compendiums, and a performance DVD. But by that time, members had dispersed and discovered crisp attractions. New individual glories were mined.
But, oh -- what was!
Eruptive, scintillating guitar-led Neo-Rockabilly that spanned Blues, Country, and primal Rock'n'Roll. Flamboyantly idiosyncratic gestures colluded with flabbergasting instrumentation, in rave-up flammables of adventurous mien.
Modern-day Sci-Fi/ fantasy was grafted onto vintage rompings to father a bloodshot-eyed creation full of verve, strut and cat-styled swell.
We had 13 Cats for what seemed but a twinkling. One tilted moment. They'd rocked headfirst into a topsy-turvy and taboo delirium dear to senses-fevered apostles. Perhaps from blueprinting, theirs had been envisioned as a fleeting escapade.
Whatever the case, recorded portraits and gray-matter snapshots are all we have left of the wonder that was.
Videos: "Sex Hex" "Snap, Crackle, and Hiss" "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon" live in Vegas (36:27)
Bandcamp (in the beginning)
Bandcamp (13 Tracks)
The Termites
Square Go
(13 Deluxe)
A live-gig portrait that fucking roars. It's as if these Scotland skull-grinders have spent years since their 1985 genesis in cryogenic suspension, with additional aggro piped intravenously. Droogs include Kenny "The Duke" Mitchell, Scott "Bally" Ballantine, Ewin, Johnny, and Dougie. The five loose upon cheering rabble razored ricochets of ear-melting astoundment. Somebody stole the tires off an ambulance parked out front.
Recommended: "Overload," "Crazy Mama," "Kicked in the Teeth," "FTW," "Bad Man," "Devils," "Somebody's Gonna Pay," "Rockin' All Night"
Only dated videos are available: "Crazy Mama" "Kicked in the Teeth" "Rockin' All Night" (live)
Suntroub
Manusia
(SoundPOV)
The throttle-wide-open members of Indonesia's Suntroub (Sunday's Troublerer) hurl angry chunks of existentialist whatsis -- at least, that's what I surmise, hindered as I am by a language divide. This much, though, can be confidently asserted: Unplugging the disc player won't prevent hardcore justice's absolutely pulverizing oblongs fleeing toward horizon.
Recommended: "Gepok Kenthes," "Manusia," "Stop Fighter," "Sunday's Troublerer," "Tipuan Palsu," "For the Punxs"
Videos: "Gepok Kenthes" "Punk Not Dead" (live) "Tipuan Palsu" (live)
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Tuff Darts
s/t
(Sire / Music on CD)
Led by lead guitarist/primary tunesmith Jeff Salen (RIP), the Tuff Darts were among the more colorful and proficient of the 1970s CBGB class. That was amply evidenced in their three tracks on 1975's Live at CBGBs double LP. Robert Gordon was then the group's voice.
Tommy Frenzy, himself crackerjack at the mic, had by this 1978 Sire platter assumed the Darts' frontman position. The undersung colleagues of Big Apple brawlers the Ramones, Blondie, Dead Boys, and Heartbreakers shone like streetlights amid a streetfight, and are recalled fondly by in-know survivors of bowery overnights.
Tuff Darts compositions were mini-classic episodes in which regulation Rock'n'Roll and Pop inclinations were strained through wiseass Punk attitude (that occasionally cruised the more deviant Red Light precincts), ending up as sleek missiles that satisfied.
Some tracks cried 'Radio.' Others belonged in the back pages of under-counter periodicals. All, though, were front-of-the-underclass.
Several reissues of this LP have occurred over decades, the most recent being a 2024 CD issuance by Music on CD.
Recommended: "Who's Been Sleeping Here," "(Your Love is Like) Nuclear Waste," "Here Comes Trouble," "Rats," "Fun City," "All For the Love of Rock'n'Roll," "Love and Trouble," "Head Over Heels," "Slash," "Phone Booth Man," "My Guiar Lies Bleeding in My Arms"
Videos: "Who's Been Sleeping Here" "(Your Love is Like) Nuclear Waste" "Here Comes Trouble" "Rats" "All For the Love of Rock'n'Roll" "Head Over Heels" "Slash"
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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"
Vampire Bats
Vampire's Delight
(Gollipop Records)
Recommended: "Witch Stomp," "Dr. Mad Daddy," "Full Moonlight," "Zombie in Love," "Batman Theme," "Red Apple Pie," "Please Give Me Something"
Videos: "Witch Stomp" (Official video) "Zombie in Love" "Red Apple Pie" "Please Give Me Something" (live)
The Strike-Outs
Double Negative
(Evil Tone Records)
The cover's 2 pack symbolizes brothers Simon and Adam Vine, thrashing down-under inciters who don't need no stinkin' bass. The two collude to amass enough violent ear-cuffery to plunge both sides of the Brisbane into blackness.
Recommended: "Johnny," "Another Way," "Watching the Clock," "No. 2," "Dunno," "Starting Over," "Towards the Sun"
Videos: "Johnny" "Watching the Clock" (Official video) "Towards the Sun"
