punk this week: gee tee, fen fen, ar-kaics, alienator + 5 more
A massive Bandcamp Friday features new stuff from Rouge, Dead Finks, Grand Final, Egg Idiot, and more.
It’s Friday, May 3, and this is Punk This Week. It’s see/saw’s rundown of the new punk records that are worth a listen. The latest installment features new albums and tapes from Gee Tee, Fen Fen, Ar-Kaics, Rouge, Dead Finks, Alienator, and more. Do you want to read about Grand Final? Egg Idiot? The Dogs? The full post is available to paid subscribers (and those who barter their way through the paywall). Free subscribers still have access to interviews, playlists, and more. Please consider a paid subscription to help grow this reader-supported endeavor!
Gee Tee: Prehistoric Chrome [Nailbiter]
Following the first self-titled album and Goodnight Neanderthal, Gee Tee’s Prehistoric Chrome follows two of the best garage punk records of the past decade as the third best of the three. A demo of Neanderthal’s “40k” is among the best things here—a stripped down reading of a classic; it’s like those Jay Reatard singles that later got proper elaborate album recordings. It’s not that the songs of Prehistoric Chrome aren’t strong, it’s just a tightrope walk making music that sounds like this and having everything hit with maximum impact. There’s not enough variation to justify why this is a long pretty good album instead of a half-as-long really good album or three stellar singles. All this said: “Couch Potato” is fun as shit! There’s a lot to love about “Stink Eye!” Get these compliments while they’re hot!
Fen Fen: National Threat [Sweet Time]
Fen Fen make paranoid Detroit punk that reminds me of the good old days when we had Urinal Cake Records. (Pour one out into the Splash Hog.) National Threat is crashing and frenzied muscle punk defined by screeching guitars and frantic screams. There’s also this vintage-feeling puritanical outrage that feels refreshing, like “FM”’s screed about the state of terrestrial radio. It’s like if the Victims’ “Television Addict” stole Howard Stern’s early satellite era monologues. The hooks are sick, the music is exciting, everything goes hard.
