Music

PREMIERE: Listen to the new album from Renny Wilson, 'Punk Explosion/Extension'

by Jeremy Mersereau

Photo: Ashleigh Brown

Montreal via Edmonton’s Renny Wilson is definitely a man of many hats. Remember 2013’s hazy, chilled-out Sugarglider? Well, forget about that, here’s Punk Explosion/Extension, an electrifying collection of ferocious but poppy garage anthems that sound like The Sonics and Jay Reatard collaborating with Ace Frehley and a wildcat. Turn the average Gun Club song up by 30bpm, add more distortion, and you’re in the ballpark. The best part? You can listen to the whole thing right here and now, because we’re premiering it below.

Originally a limited cassette-only collection of Renny’s more caustic material, Punk Explosion/Extension is Mint Records‘ reissue of 2014’s Punk Explosion. Expanded and remastered, the album includes new, previously unreleased material and remastered versions of the old recordings. Listening to slices of hyperactive garage-punk snot like “Fascist Punx” and “Stiffed”, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was recorded in Memphis instead of Wilson’s home studio in Park Ex, Montreal. Best of all, the whole thing is capped off by a piss-taking but still fierce cover of Foreigner’s cornball standby “Juke Box Hero” that makes a terrible song actually listenable. What are you waiting for?