Words by Jim Testa
Jim Testa founded the highly influential zine, Jersey Beat in 1982 which he continues to edit to this day. Through writing for his own publication and a number of other outlets, including as a staff writer for Hudson County’s Jersey Journal, he has championed local, regional and national up-and-coming bands. Punk has always shunned credentials, but rest assured that Jim won’t lead you astray.
GRAND SLAMS
YAWN MOWER – I Just Can’t Wait To Die (Mint 400)
Frontman Mike Chick calls this album Yawn Mower’s Pinkerton but Jeff Rosenstock’s Purple Mountain and NJ’s own Fountains of Wayne seem more appropriate referents, combining fuzz-core and power-pop into a clever and distinctive brand of indie-rock. The original Yawn Mower duo has expanded into a quintet, and I Just Can’t Wait To Die benefits from fuller arrangements and a more dramatic sweep, while still maintaining its dirtbag integrity. You might love this album as much as I do, but you still wouldn’t bring these guys home to meet your mom. What sets Yawn Mower apart is how catchy their misery sounds. It’s that blend of sludge and sunshine that makes them more than just a novelty. This isn’t pretty music, and it’s not supposed to be. It’s a noisy, sarcastic, hook-stuffed middle finger to both your bad day and the looming specter of mortality. In other words, the most Jersey thing you’ll hear all year.
GANSER – Animal Hospital (felte Records)
Here’s a female-fronted trio offering a distaff version of the corrosive, propulsive Lad Rock of Idles, Fontaines DC and Mclusky. This is post-punk unleashed, exploring new sounds with ferocity but staying true to a propulsive examination of ideas and experiences with a palpable tension. Early single “Black Sand” rocks out a sonic template – ear-shredding guitars and a pounding beat in the service of lyrics that attack as much as communicate. “Discount Diamonds” expands the band’s musical palette to experimental psyche-rock with scifi synths while “Lounge” and “Plato” focus the band’s energies on seduction. I’m still hearing things for the first time whenever I play this, which is often. Join the club.
HOME RUNS
AUTOCAMPER – What Do You Do All Day? (Safe Suburban Home/Slumberland)
Manchester’s Autocamper split vocals between Jack Harkins (who mostly sings in his low register) and alto Niamh Purtill, offering he/her contrasts as well as charming two-part harmonies. Part Britpop and part American pop-jangle, Autocamper offer a relaxed, almost conversational tone in their songs, whether dissecting the ups and downs of modern romance (the pros and cons of cohabitation, relationship red flags) or simply reassuring us that “everything’s gonna be all right.” Keyboards float through the album, shifting tones to match each song – roller-rink organ here, breezy New Wave synths there – and the arrangements fill each track without ever overdoing it. This is an album I’ve enjoyed returning to time and again, with an original sound that’s not afraid to tip its cap to influences as diverse as Modern English, The Vaselines, and even The Feelies.
FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD – “First Place” EP (self-released)
This twentysomething trio from Washington, D.C. follow up their 2024 album Magnolia with four songs that further refine their beguiling fusion of riot grrl feminism and post-punk dreaminess. Originally the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Jessie Szegö, the growing involvement of bassist/cellist Ella Buskirk, and drummer Ricky “Ten Bears” Martinez in songwriting and arrangements has resulted in a tighter, more focused, less noisy sound. Szegö has said that she envisions the group as a haunted porcelain doll, and “First Place” reflects that vision with its brittle melodies, jagged guitar, and the susurration of Buskirk’s cello. The album ranges from “Tiny Beanie,” with Szegö playing a nasty Valley Girl speak/talking over cascading riffs, to “Perfect View,” with its “Dear Prudence” guitar intro, sweet vocal, and lush chorus. This band is already riveting and they’re still in their early twenties. Watch this space.
THE PROBLEM WITH KIDS TODAY – Take It! (In The Shed Records)
These three Connecticut goofballs recorded their first full-length in a proper studio and realized, like Jonathan Richman before them, that the modern world wasn’t for them. So, they built their own studio in a backyard shed and went about recording an album that captures the exuberant DIY innocence and energy of youthful punks and garage rockers like Boston’s Dogmatics and NYC’s Speedies. Tate Brooks, Silas Lourenco-Lang, and Reena Yu don’t care about being cool, they’re just excited to be singing about stuff, whether it’s Spongebob Squarepants (unapologetically dumb but fun!) or an alien close encounter (“Ace Starchild,”) or their near-perfect summation of post-adolescent frustration, “Take It!” They don’t sing so much as shout everything, because it’s really IMPORTANT, man. Exemplified by the frantic “The Beginning of the End of the World” and two pissed-off rants about shitty romances, “I Dunno” and “The Stranger.” And so it goes, 15 tracks in all, and undoubtedly a few could have been saved for B-sides or something. But it’s hard to deny the charms of the Dead Milkmen-meet-the-Banana Splits “Bad Hair Day” or the Art Brut-ish “Hillsborough Disaster 1989.” The problem with kids today? Not enough of them start bands like this and take a stab at reinventing punk rock all over again.
GINO & THE GOONS / CHINESE JUNK – “Talk Trash With…” Split EP (Big Neck Records)
Split EP’s can be treasure-troves. They let labels expose two bands for the price of one and give fans the same opportunity. This one’s a keeper. South Carolina’s Gino & The Goons deliver five tracks of their gonzo garage-punk, starting with an instrumental that sounds like the soundtrack to the craziest party you weren’t cool enough to be invited to. The Goons rawk out with razor-sharp guitars and gutbucket drums while Gino wails over the top, soaked in booze and melody. “I’ll Survive” is a lifer’s anthem with a nod to The Stooges, “Nothing At All” a snotty retort with Velvets DNA, “Mess You Up” a rapidfire punk boogie, and “Push Your Luck” a garage-y throttling with searing guitar solos. Chinese Junk’s five songs bring speed and snot in equal doses, with buzzsaw guitars and emphatic vocals. “This City Don’t Rock and Roll” and “Shut Up About The USA” are self-explanatory declarations of punk attitude, “Crimewave” doubles down on the band’s inherent Ramonescore, and “Your Family Are Robots” adds a scifi twist to the declamatory outrage about modern society.
POP UPS & FOUL BALLS
ANAMANAGUCHI – Anyway (Polyvinyl Records)
Anamaguchi sings! That’s the headline on the NYC combo’s fourth album in a 16-year career. Once the instrumental kings of chiptune, the beepity-boop 8-bit sound of video game arcades, Anamanaguchi has morphed into a noisy guitar band with vocals and yes, actual lyrics. The band creates an energized roar, with strands of those lo-bit synths flitting through a barrage of electric guitar, bass, and drums, but Anyway has a sound, it’s the mid-western emo of the 90s (and yes, that’s the American Football house on the cover, where the band lived and wrote most of this album). There’s not a song among the dozen here that I’d skip, but neither does anything stand out, except perhaps “Darcie,” a waltz-time paean to the band’s label chief at Polyvinyl. Whatever else they’re singing about (good luck parsing it out without a lyric sheet) is set to a 90s “Rock” sound that at its best commands attention, but occasionally borders on the generic.