Jenkinses

Miracle Reasoning

(Self-issued)

Brace yourselves for fusillades the like of which many crave but seldom locate. This raucous and rocketing cell could easily flatten entire cityscapes with its formidable armaments. Punk sensibilities goad with relish; indeed, chords crash into one another before veering on in headlong mission. From Brussels, harboring menace sufficient to provoke international mayhem.

Recommended: "Hipster City," "Homeschool Homicide," "Miracle Reasoning," "Warm Inside," "Habit Of a Lifetime," "Some New Kind Of Cake"

Video: "Habit Of a Lifetime"

Facebook

Bandcamp

Hot Jumpin' Six

Swagger

(PART Records)

Accomplished here is a difficult task, that being the rendering of blues-grounded sounds in a manner upmarket but not overly so. Polish songs too much and, in their resultant sheen, validating earthiness is lost. In these grooves, instead, their stimulative potential gains succor from carriage swank to an accomodating degree.  Flair and grittiness are not mutually exclusive. Nor is class incongruous.

Recommended: "I Feel So Good," "Messing With the Kid," "I Don't Need Someone," "Burnt Toast and Black Coffee," "Well I Done Got Over It," "Looking For a Woman," "Rolling Along," "Here Lies My Love"

Video: "I Feel So Good" (live)

Facebook

PART

Dillon O'Bannon

Hand From the Grave 4-track EP

(Dum Sun Records)

Dillon knows how to strangle strings to high effect and in various fashions: harmonic allurement, serrated incisor, and marauding brutalizer. He wisely intuits that compact songs can realize optimum impact through their very brevity. In the tradition of careening post-1970s Rock'n'Roll, he dazzles with sparks flying.

Recommended: "Until It's Over," "What Comes To You," "Daytime Murderers," "Let You Know"

Video: "Daytime Murderers"

Facebook

Bandcamp

Dim Sun

Headcat

Live In Berlin

(BMG)

As portrayed in this 2011 concert setting, the Lemmy-fronted Headcat drew upon Rock'n'Roll's voluminous back catalog, but not as musty recreators. They charged classics with fresh animation, at indomitable volume and with a ferocity that threatened to tear off heads.

Following Lemmy's tragic 2015 passing, Danny B Harvey and Slim Jim Phantom have continued with others assuming lead vocalist duties.

Recommended: "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Something Else," "Always In My Way," "Let It Rock," "American Beat," "It'll Be Me," "Bad Boy," "Rock This Town," "My Babe," "Matchbox," "Crossroads," "Say Mama," "Blue Suede Shoes"

Video: "American Beat"

Facebook

Amazon

Oi!l Change

Unfinished

(Self-issued)

Anthemic Punk inspires sense of community and breeds allegiance to the bands bannering it. (Distemper alone isn't productive. Though venting it indiscriminately offers satiation, it results in only throwaway din.) This is music around which throngs can rally. Stab clenched fists in the air and stomp boots, for in these charged projectiles breathes shout-along content uniting toward revelry. Such is how pits are born.

Recommended: "Ten Years," "Lovable Losers," "Anthem," "Whenever," "Unfinished," "Never Fade Away," "Start Again," "So Long"

Video: live

Facebook

Bandcamp

The Firebirds

Dance All Night Long

(Rockville Records)

Jaded observers might dismiss this as treacly Happy Days-type idealism of the Ike-era, but they'd be wrong. The Firebirds are in a league with fellow UKers The Jets. With their innocently-charactered and blithe songs, buoyed by lissome harmonies, comes a reminder that cheeriness is a quality worth treasuring. Not all must be savage; innocuousness, too, has its place.

Recommended: "Dance All Night Long," "Why Don't You Take a Chance," "Whatcha Gonna Do?," "Mi Amor," "I Won't Believe Your Lies," "Memories," "First Love," "Lonely As Can Be," "My Dreams Came True," "New Obsession," "Running Away," "Ifs Buts & Maybes"

Video: "Rockin' At the Ritz" (live)

Facebook

Rockville

The EDWOODS

"Plan 9" single

(Self-Issued)

The names first drew me. I'm a longtime fan of Ed Wood movies, with Plan 9 From Outer Space being my favorite. I would have moved on, still, were those the sole advantages. But there's undeniable merit to this rough-hewn endeavor. It's cacophonous and brutish. Two-man virulance stitched in a Brazilian garage, this single blusters its audacious way with elbows jutted. Bellicosity doesn't ask permission. And unruliness has magnetism all its own.

Video: "Plan 9"

Facebook