Music

Top 5 Punk Releases: July

by Sam Sutherland

Each month, tons of new music from many taste-spanning genres is released into a fast-consuming, unforgiving market; it can be tough to get a handle on what’s new before it’s on to the next. In an attempt to highlight the standout releases, at the end of each month, AUX staff re-cap the month in Punk, Metal, Indie/Pop/Rock, Hip Hop, Electronic, and Pop with the top five releases in each. Consider it your cheat sheet for year-end lists.

Top 5 Punk Releases:
July

 

The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

Probably the only band to simultaneously play Warped Tour and get positive reviews from Pitchfork, the Gaslight Anthem have offered up another reliable piece of Americana-soaked punk rock with Handwritten. Following the less imaginative American Slang (an album the band has themselves referred to as “rushed”), songs like “45” bring the band back to the heart of their debut, Sink or Swim, along with the breakout ’59 Sound. Always a little to the left of the contemporary punk scene, Gaslight has succeeded in returning to the best of their former sound without regressing. Tough to pull off.

Teenage Bottlerocket – Freak Out!
	Do you like the Ramones? Do you like skateboarding? Great.

D.O.A. – We Come In Peace

Even though it would be easy to rest on their laurels and just keep re-issuing Hardcore ’81 with new mixes or whatever other bands do for the rest of time, D.O.A. have, for some reason, continued to release interesting records well into multiple new decades. We Come In Peace is the latest in a series of strong recent full-lengths; Northern Avenger was just as clever and vital as much of their classic era material, and this is cut from the same cloth. Beefing things up with multiple guest appearances (Hugh Dillon! Jello Biafra! Ben Kowalewicz from Billy Talent!), Joe Shithead and co. get down to proper old school west coast hardcore business for the hundredth time, and it’s seriously still fun.

Propagandhi – “Failed States” (single)
	The first single from the band’s upcoming full-length of the same name, “Failed States” is one minute and 54 seconds of perfectly progressive thrash from Winnipeg’s proudest sons. You can go buy it on iTunes right now and it will take less time than reading about how badly it rips.

The Locust – Molecular Genetics From The Gold Standard Labs

It’s been five years since the last proper full-length from San Deigo’s stupidest-dressed self-serious experimental grindcore band, so this collection of 44 rare tracks from their earliest days will have to do for now. And it does (do). The Locust have always been exciting, and even at their least inventive, they blow open more sonic doors than most bands do in a lifetime. If you don’t love blastbeats and the sound of a Juno-60 keyboard, you will hate this forever. But if you think grown men in insect outfits (technically these songs come from “street clothes”-era sessions, but whatever) playing brutally fast political psychopathic hardcore songs is fun, get psyched.

Out in August: New records from Worn in Red, Strike Anywhere, Dikembe, and more.