Back catalogue:

Review: It sometimes only takes one great song to gatecrash your way to prominence and Australian modern punk greats The Chats managed that with the opening cut here, 'Smoko', which is an ode to the joys of the fag break: "Leave me alone / I'm on Smoko". This reissue is of their second EP that was released by Sunshine Coast label Bargain Bin records. With the first pressing going for big money, it's a welcome chance to get your hands on this classic. Despite 'Smoko' being the biggest song, it's loaded with bangers and a stroke of genius that they realised that a song about struggling to afford bus money would connect on such a wide level.

Review: Bringing bruising good time Oi-punk to the new generation, Chubby & The Gang have made quick work over the course of their two exceptional full-lengths. Now, less than a year removed from the life affirming scrappy anthems of 'The Mutt's Nuts', the gang (no pun intended) return with a literal 'Labour Of Love.' The single features three new cuts, all love songs, delivered with the manic, crusty, anthemic beauty one could ever desire from new school hardcore-by-way-of-Oi! punk revivalists.

Review: Following on from last year's critically acclaimed debut LP This Is Crime Wave, Codefendants return with a brand new 10" single complete with two utter bangers. The culmination of an effort by Get Dead vocalist Sam King, who by offering tattoos and selling flash art with his graffiti crew in order to raise funds to help rapper Ceschi Ramos with his incarceration; later when the pair would meet, they bonded over a bottle of whiskey and their shared passion for the Venn Diagram intersections of the realms of punk and hip-hop. With the addition of punk legend and NOFX main-man Fat Mike, an incomparable trio was born. Flagging their genre as "Crime Wave" (hence the album title), the tripod of MC's and punks deliver a dizzying concoction of new wave, hip-hop, flamenco, hardcore and sunshine pop, while the titular 'Living Las Vegas' from this new 10" features west coast rap legend 2Mex.

Review: The 21st Century is riddled with new ghosts, according to this somewhat surprise comeback EP from pop rock veterans, The Copyrights. A four tracker that runs headfirst into themes of relationships collapsing and our inability to truly leave them in the past thanks to the hyper connectivity of our digitised world, the idea is simple - with each passing day we deal with a new haunting. Music, however, can be our salvation. Creative expression, artistic declarations and explorations of emotions we may not always know what to do with until we properly look at the options. On 'New Ghosts', the band go for a main stage guitar sound that nods to pop punk and then dives headfirst into stadium indie, catharsis on on the scale of anthems.

Review: Pioneering punk outfit Crass continue with their ambitious The Feeding Of Five Thousand Remix Project, a self-professed testament to just how multifarious the group were when they dropped The Feeding back in 1978. Melding elements of rap and grime, before either were even a thing, with raw and raucous anarchistic guitar spirit, there's a lot that can be done with those original stems.

This is the fourth case in point, which involves the innovative and hugely influential sonic industrialist Paul Jamrozy, AKA Test Dept's most iconic member, who here delivers something that's part-ode to the source material, and part-nod to his own outfit, which is also sadly no more. Flip to find an altogether different beast, from dublab and Ninja Tune's Los Angeline production wizard, Maral Mahmoudi.

Review: Ever consistent Canadian hardcore punk crew, Cancer Bats, are seemingly set to return with their follow up to 2018's 'The Spark That Moves', which marks their first offering following the departure of founding guitarist Scott Middleton.

With the frenetic thrashings of latest single, 'Lonely Bong', the group haven't sounded this vitriolic or pissed off in the better part of a decade.

From the thunderous title-track alone, it's evident 'Psychic Jailbreak' marks a smouldering return to form with low end grooves and Southern snarl imbued within its hardcore bindings. Cancer Bats have always sounded their best when resembling Every Time I Die getting into a beer-soaked bar brawl with Down, and this could be the fight that leads to a hospital visit.

Review: This Midwestern emo classic gets its first vinyl reissue since the album's initial release in 1995. Like true audiophiles, the album - often shortened to just Shmap'n Shmazz - has been remastered from the original tapes. For those wondering, Cap'n Jazz are trailblazers in their field - widely recognized for having shaped the sound of mathy Midwest Emo. And after they left Cap'n Jazz, the members formed a slew of other terrific groups, including the mighty American Football, who are regularly lauded as pioneers. But 30 years on from their sole release, Cap'n Jazz are quite rightly ready for their victory lap. Immerse into cuts such as the timeless 'Little League' and the high-octane 'In The Clear', where the yelpy vocals and pummeling drums are the essence of high-octane rock n' roll, and you'll get the fervour surrounding them.

Review: The always superb Sounds Of The City comes through here with some freshness and newness here via their newly minted 'Sounds Of The City, Dark' series. It finds the French outfit Catalogue debuting on the label with a sound that brings a different perspective to the new post-punk movement. Their sound is a mixing pot of an array of different influences and what you get is music that will get you nodding to the grooves while your mind gets lost exploring synthetic elements, angular guitar riffs, robotic rhythms and lovely deep bass.

Review: With their 2022 debut LP God's Country, the herald of the true face and voice for modern middle-American malaise came in the form of noise-rock/sludge metal purveyors Chat Pile. Broadcasting from their muted home of Oklahoma City, their deformed sonic mutations pulled equally from The Jesus Lizard, Acid Bath and Korn, while vocalist Raygun Busch (that is his credited moniker) appalled and harrowed with his spoken-word nightmare poetics touching on everything from homelessness and the opioid crisis, to real-life recounts of botched robberies and first-person narratives from horror film characters such as the mother of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. Expanding their scope both conceptually and compositionally, Cool World takes aim at the entire planet with classism, the horrors of war and genocide, the very real potential for abuse stemming from toxic masculinity, capitalist lies and the nihility of existence all as topics of discussion, while still making time for backwoods journeys into serial killer's isolated farm homes. Musically continuing to pummel with industrial abrasion and hypnotic groove, sonically the band have begun to embrace their sludge-core tendencies while channelling nuanced elements of alternative metal and goth rock, offering new painstaking modes of vulnerability to drive home their despair-laden character studies. Mark our words, there isn't one single other metal/punk/alternative album in 2024 that slaps this hard while instilling such a cold feeling of visceral dread and fear for our ever-despondent cool world.

Review: 2022 saw the unlikely glow up of the one of the most sonically unhinged and conceptually hideous newcomers of recent times - Chat Pile. Hailing from the muted middle-America of Oklahoma City, their debut LP God's Country found itself on many an out-of-place end of year list, with its harrowing concoction of sludge metal, noise-rock and spoken word diatribes based around everything from the opioid and housing crises to first-person recounts of revenge from Jason Voorhees's mother of Friday the 13th fame. In short, it was a caustic, horror-indebted debut about how utterly fucked the US is, and now with their platform and exposure majorly expanded, Chat Pile return to take the entire globe to task for its follies on the deformed, multi-headed behemoth bastard of a sophomore effort that is Cool World. Furthering their signature sludgecore down the mire of audible hubris, yet incorporating elements of swaggering grunge and sultry goth-rock, here the unassuming, deplorable four-piece make their indelible mark on the extreme music underground and make it abundantly clear that God's Country was only the beginning of their Babylonian death chants.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


With 2022's God's Country, Oklahoma City sludge metal/noise rock manglers Chat Pile took the underground music scene by the throat and dragged it through the twisted drug addled, decrepit, destitute annals of modern middle America. Returning two years on from their major glow up that saw them land on numerous end of year list that usually wouldn't touch their brand of hubris sonics with a ten foot pole, their sophomore endeavour Cool World trades the initial narrow view of the woes of their home country for the rotting globe at large, taking religion, politicians and narcissistic everyday people to task for their ignorance, malice and docile attitudes which are leading to a culmination of no more cool world for any of us. Expanding their sonic scope to draw on more melodious grunge and sultry goth-rock, while tapping outside production help this time around to make their heaving industrial-tinged noise-sludge bombast even more stomach churning, LP2 makes bad on all of Chat Pile's initial, unsettling promise, with a nauseating feeling that they'll be narrating our end times for as long as there are ears to listen.

Review: Following on from the unprecedented success of their 2022 debut full-length God's Country, Oklahoma City sludge-metal meets noise-rock four-piece Chat Pile now expand their scope (which initially took their home to task for its homeless and opioid crises), to take aim at the world at large for all of its follies from oil-drilling, to the shoulder shrugs of war, deforestation and genocide. Imbuing their sludegcore heft with gothic grunge melodies while also increasing their heaving tonal bedlam to nauseating degrees, Cool World genuinely sounds like the soundtrack to our own self-designed end times, and what better clarion call to see us over the horizon than Chat Pile's signature industrial-tinged bombast led by frontman Raygun Busch's harrowing, howling spoken word sermons.

Review: With 2022's God's Country, Oklahoma City sludge metal/noise rock manglers Chat Pile took the underground music scene by the throat and dragged it through the twisted drug addled, decrepit, destitute annals of modern middle America. Returning two years on from their major glow up that saw them land on numerous end of year list that usually wouldn't touch their brand of hubris sonics with a ten foot pole, their sophomore endeavour Cool World trades the initial narrow view of the woes of their home country for the rotting globe at large, taking religion, politicians and narcissistic everyday people to task for their ignorance, malice and docile attitudes which are leading to a culmination of no more cool world for any of us. Expanding their sonic scope to draw on more melodious grunge and sultry goth-rock, while tapping outside production help this time around to make their heaving industrial-tinged noise-sludge bombast even more stomach churning, LP2 makes bad on all of Chat Pile's initial, unsettling promise, with a nauseating feeling that they'll be narrating our end times for as long as there are ears to listen.

Review: Brighton was a very different place in 1979. Far more run down, but with that providing a home to far more alternative things than its gentrified soul tries to claim today. Out of this wind swept coastal city that had once seen better days, The Chefs emerged. Formed by friends at Brighton Polytechnic, with roots in a band called The Smartees (who had a song called 'Thrush', all about STIs, later redone by The Chefs), as that group fell apart this one was born. And now, thanks to Damaged Goods, we can relive some of the finest moments from four albums and around the same number of years as an active outfit. Firmly indie-pop, but with rockabilly, surf, post punk and new wave tones, fans of B52s and Talking Heads should definitely be all over this one.

Review: Once hailed by Pitchfork as "the noisiest pop music on the planet", Texan group Cherubs, with Immaculada High, continue their second wave after returning from a two-decade hiatus in 2014. It sees the three piece land on American metal and experimental label Relapse Records - think Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan - with an album that brings a fresh, even a previously thought-lost '90s ethic back to alternative, distorted and noisy metal. This record is no final farewell type gig, with the essence and rawness of tracks like "Sooey Pig" and "Full Regalia" in all its anti-Americana charm shining through as something new. With the Texas-sized, psychedelic racket of Cherubs recorded and engineered by Erik Wofford (Explosions In The Sky, The Black Angels) an undeniable trippy element to the band's punk ethos wilfully resonates throughout, most distinctly in Kevin Whitley's LSD-laced vocals that add a warm colour to a wonderfully muddy mix of lo-fi, distorted post-rock. Get dirty.

Review: Primarily known for his sprawling LA-based psych/garage/punk/all of the above work as Osees aka Thee Oh Sees aka Oh Sees, John Dwyer links up with experienced percussionist Dave Barbarossa (Fine Young Cannibals, Adam & The Ants) for the retro bratty glam-punk experience of the year - Chime Oblivion. Their self-titled debut is packed full of squelchy synths, jagged minimalist guitar lines and high-pitched eccentric vocals, paying clear homage to classic acts such as The Slits and Bow Wow Wow. Chock full of bite-sized bangers including 'Neighbourhood Dog' and 'Kiss Her Or Be Her', both of which scoff at the notion of a three-minute track, this is retrofitted throwback dance-punk in the stylised era before it even had such a moniker.

Review: 
This deluxe, limited edition 40th anniversary reissue of Circle Jerks ?iconic 1980 classic Group Sex has been specially remastered for vinyl. It includes all the original tracks as well 1980 band rehearsal bonus tracks and a 20 page booklet packed with exclusive, never before seen photos, as well as interviews and anecdotes from fans like Fugazi's Ian MacKaye, Rancid's Lars Frederiksen and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. The seminal hardcore-punk album is one of the genre's landmarks and it had a huge influence on countless acts to follow.

Review: After recording sessions for their legendary fifth LP Combat Rock would come to a close at the end of 1981, punk heroes The Clash embarked on a six-week jaunt across Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand (where they shot the iconic cover for their forthcoming record) and Hong Kong. Hitting the city of Kowloon on 25th February only a few months out from record release, this was an era when Hong Kong was still a colony of the British Empire (the last existing dependency of any significance at this time) and enjoyed less government interference in personal freedom, yet there had never been an act as bold as The Clash over to visit. With a setlist that reads today more like a greatest hits including the signature opener 'London Calling' along with bangers galore from 'The Guns Of Brixton' to 'I Fought The Law', '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' and 'Jimmy Jazz', with the band even treating the crowd to an early earful of Combat Rock lead single 'Know Your Rights' more than two months before official release (a time when no one had smart phones to film and throw up on YouTube or include on Setlist.fm as "New Song"), this performance and tour would also be one of the final to feature drummer Topper Headon, who would be fired due to his heroin addiction just a few months down the line, marking the end of the original line-up.

Review: Like owning a little piece of history with a bonus memoir, The Clash's Combat Rock was - is - the band's best selling album of all time and highest charting in both the US and UK. This was also the last time Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon would record together before the lineup changed, and the track list contains at least two of the outfit's most recognised songs - namely 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' and 'Rock the Casbah'.

The original version of the LP was less expansive than this special edition released to mark 40 years since the long-player went on sale. The addition of The People's Hall offers fans a chance to relish in no less than 12 extra tracks, including collaborations with the legendary Ranking Roger - 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Red Angel Dragnet' - the iconic late-frontman of The Beat more than ideally suited to the crew's sound.

Review: 1982's seminal fifth and final album from the classic lineup of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon needs little introduction, but will now receive some additional sonic context in the guise of 'The People's Hall.'

Compiled by the living members of The Clash, this expanded edition features 12 previously unreleased rarities and outtakes including a version of 'Know Your Rights' recorded at The People's Hall on The Rolling Stones' Mobile Studio.

Offering greater insight into the recording, demoing and ideas process behind arguably the last definitive Clash album as well as one of the all time punk-rock greats, these additions are essential for any true Clash cultist.

Review: Album number five from legendary British post-punk and New Wavers The Clash was first unveiled on 14th May 1982. 40 years on it finds itself the centre of attention once more, re-released both in this original version and an extended edition with bonus record The People's Hall. Sticking to this outing, fans will likely already know that the record as it was first intended remains the band's most successful of all time, outselling all that came before or after and charting higher than any other in the US and UK alike.

Respectively hitting number seven and number two in the charts of the day, and spending 23 weeks in the top 40 albums in Britain and a mammoth 61 weeks in the LP league tables Stateside, today it's a double-platinum testament to just how potent the combination of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon was. The last record to feature that iteration of the outfit, tracks like 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' remain utterly timeless.

Review: Given The Clash's wholehearted embrace of dub and reggae in their sound, it was significant when they came to Jamaica for the World Music Festival in 1982. Now you can relive that momentous gig thanks to a high quality sound board recording which captures the energy of the performance and the band when they were riding high off the back of Combat Rock. The hits are non-stop, from 'London Calling' to 'The Guns Of Brixton', 'Bankrobber' to 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go?'. The kind of band who truly made their songs come to life on stage, no one did it like The Clash - stick this on and you'll have no choice but to agree.

Review: The Clash are post-punk icons whose music still draws in new generations of anarchists some 40-odd years after the band peaked. Back in 1978, they were still at their very best and it was then that they recorded the BBC Sessions that now make up this new vinyl release. Alongside all the tunes from those recordings are a series of selections from their 1982 East Coast tour in the United States of America. All the classics are here such as 'London's Burning', 'I Fought The Law', 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' and many more along with some less-known gems.

Review: Following the end of recording sessions for what would become their iconic fifth full-length Combat Rock in December 1981, punk legends The Clash would embark on a six-week tour of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand (where they would shoot the cover for the upcoming album) and Hong Kong. Captured in Kowloon on the 25th February three months before record release, and during a time where the city enjoyed less stringent government oversight, there had still never been an act as rambunctious and declarative as The Clash to hold court. Delivering a set that now reads like a greatest hits from the obligatory opener of 'London Calling' to bangers such as 'Tommy Gun', 'The Guns Of Brixton', 'I Fought The Law' and 'Jimmy Jazz', while even unveiling Combat Rock lead single 'Know Your Rights' two months before studio release, the performance and subsequent tour is also noteworthy for being one of the last with the original line-up, as drummer Topper Headon would be fired due to his heroin addiction only a couple of months later.

Review: Punk rock heroes The Clash were midway through their transformation from guitar thrashing rabble rousers to the dub and hip-hop influenced alt pop pioneers they became when this broadcast captured them in live action in the capital of the Netherlands. So, expect a few anthems from the early days like 'London Calling', as well as more futuristic fusions of differemt genres such as 'The Magnificent Seven' and other highlights from their sprawling, ambitious and generally acomplished triumph, the Sandinista! LP

Review: In December 1980, The Clash released the sprawling 36-song Sandinista! album, which marked their transition from rabble rousing guitar slingers to the genre-splitting musical experimentalists that inhabited the second part of their career. This high quality recording catches them in mid change, still including the pogo-friendly likes of 'London Calling' - the opening tune here - but also an echo chamber-drenched version of reggae-inspired original 'Bankrobber' and their hip-hop anthem 'The Magnificent Seven'.

Review: Melbourne based hardcore heroes Clowns return with their much anticipated follow up to 2019's Nature/Nurture. The fifth LP from the unhinged group sees a conscious eschewing of outside perception as it champions topics ranging from sexual exploration to morality, through a collection of blistering, frenetic, but of above all else, fun bangers designed to entertain, provoke and incite flailing bodies and stage dives en masse. Endless offers a slice of bouncing hardcore punk for those who feel it's still going to be alright, as long as you dance and mosh those bad vibes away.

Review: Los Angeles crusted hardcore bruisers CNTS delivered a venomous statement of intent with their beautifully titled 2019 debut full-length Cunts, but sadly only had a brief opportunity to tour in support of the project before the world closed its doors in early 2020. Unfortunately, any and all future plans would be put on hold following vocalist Matt Cronk being injured in a car crash which resulted in a surgical error leading to a paralyzed vocal cord. Though members turned to other projects whilst awaiting/praying for Cronk's recovery (both drummer Kevin Avery and guitarist Mike Crain are members of Retox with the latter also being part of the Mike Patton-fronted Dead Cross), it wouldn't be until the winter of last year that, against all doctor's predictions, Cronk's voice would return and with it, a bevvy of new gripes and grievances to expel. Sardonically titled Thoughts & Prayers, and receiving distribution through the aforementioned Mike Patton's Ipecac label, prepare for an even more depraved batch of jagged, fuzzed-out, cynical and severely pissed off hardcore headcavers.

Review: Following their succinctly titled 2019 debut full-length Cunts, the Los Angeles based hardcore mob of the same name (sans the one vowel), would only briefly tour the project before the 2020 pandemic put a stop to all live shows. During this time, vocalist Matt Cronk suffered from a paralyzed vocal cord as result of a surgical error following a car crash injury. With other members Kevin Avery and guitarist Mike Crain keeping busy in Retox while the latter also serves as bass-man for Mike Patton-fronted Dead Cross, Cronk recovered against any medical predictions and between his personal strife and the state of utter division across the US, he has a whole load of hate to get off his chest on their cynical sophomore statement, Thoughts & Prayers.

Review: Codefendants was born out of Get Dead vocalist Sam King's graffiti crew offering tattoos and making flash art to raise money to help Ceschi Ramos whilst the rapper was incarcerated. They would eventually meet at the Gilman Street Project in Berkeley, California, and bond over a bottle of Jameson and a shared love of all things hip-hop and punk oriented. Add Fat Mike of NOFX to the mix, and you have Codefendants. The title of their debut album This Is Crime Wave comes from their self-classified genre of 'Crime Wave', but to be more specific, imagine elements of hip-hop, new wave, flamenco, and a hearty dose of the Beatles, conjured by a trio of punks and MCs.

Review: The Corsano Baiza Watt Trio album delivers an electrifying blend of post-punk and free improvisation. This debut release from Yucca Alta Records brings together three formidable artists: avant-garde drummer Chris Corsano, SoCal punk legend Joe Baiza on guitar (Saccharine Trust, Universal Congress Of) and Mike Watt on bass (Minutemen, fIREHOSE). Despite never having played or even fully met before recording, the trio’s chemistry bursts forth on this all-improvised session recorded in Landers, California, in the Mojave Desert. The opening track, '51 Card Solitaire', captures the raw spontaneity of their first encounter, beginning mid-performance and setting the tone for the ensuing dialogue. Corsano’s agile, multi-dimensional drumming underpins Baiza’s noir-tinged guitar lines and fierce chord work, while Watt anchors the sonic landscape with bold basslines that veer into exhilaratingly unexpected territory. The LP’s final two tracks, recorded live at Watt’s hometown of San Pedro, add an extra layer of intensity, fueled by a lively audience. Comes with download code included.

Review: Self-described "putrid, drug-fueled gutter rock from the filthy streets of NYC", Couch Slut deal in ugliness, and boy is business a-boomin'! Meshing the most challenging facets of grindcore, hardcore punk, noise rock and black metal, the resulting cacophony is as unpleasant as it is impenetrable, yet the commanding presence of vocalist and primary songwriter Megan Osztrosits demands you suffer the audible torment while she details harrowing depictions of sexual violence, drug abuse and more singular inner-city horrors through subversive, vitriolic and grimly humoured phrases. Working with industrial hardcore manglers Uniform's Ben Greenberg (with previous production credits for Drab Majesty, Portrayal of Guilt, Metz), You Could Do It Tonight marks the fourth overall full-length from the group, and utterly refuses to dilute or smoothen their ethos of audibly healing through pain, or just pain for the fuck of it.

Review: Hailing from Huntington Beach, California, The Crowd arrived in the early 80s as part of the "trash punk" movement, somewhat segregated from the burgeoning hardcore realm that was slowly becoming the most followed path forward for the punk scene. Sporting dayglo beachwear and influencing their own type of proto moshing (or "slam dancing"), their momentum sadly didn't equate to instantaneous success for their 1981 debut full-length 'A World Apart', which can best be described as chaotic surf-punk akin to a scrappier Agent Orange. Dissolving shortly after before reforming towards the end of the decade for their sophomore follow up Big Fish Stories, the band would become an on again, off again labour of love from there on out whilst the members toiled away in a myriad of other groups, yet time and ears syncing up in later decades as always, this debut LP has since been reappraised for its unique and pioneering form of sunny aggro and the vast number of acts it surely inspired, who ironically eclipsed the band during a time where they needed some sunrays the most.

Review: Where do we start here? The band is called GBH, otherwise known as Charged GBH, the label Puke & Vomit, and the album City Baby Attacked By Rats. Suffice to say, if you're after blissful ambient or contemporary classical best jog on and look elsewhere, because, friend, this ain't that. In comparison, this is breakneck hardcore punk with early heavy metal touches that stops for nobody and nothing. With track names like 'Slut', 'Maniac', 'Sick Boy' and 'War Dogs', you can probably imagine how thick and fast the chords, riffs and drum rolls come, with the raw energy, rage and wit that has always made punk so damned vital here in full effect and more than a hint of early Motorhead to the pacing and lyrical flow, which should tell you everything there is to know.