punk this week: parsnip’s stellar new album + 5 more

It’s Friday, April 26, 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 singles from Parsnip, Geo, Diode, Lambrini Girls, Busted Head Racket, and more. (Geo Diode is my favorite Pokémon.) The full post is available to free subscribers. Starting next week, Punk This Week posts will be available to paid subscribers (and those who barter). Please consider subscribing to help grow this reader-supported endeavor!

Parsnip: Behold [Anti Fade/Upset the Rhythm]

Lenny Kaye better bend the knee, because there isn’t a better contemporary post-Nuggets ‘60s garage pop album than Parsnip’s Behold. This band has released some incredible music up to this point, but here, they’ve leveled way up. There’s the way “Turn to Love” radiates joy, with minimalism that gives way to a beatific full-band drop with handclaps. There’s the full-on vintage organ-laden chug of “Clear Blue Sky” (which they told Paperface was inspired by the Dovers!). There’s the gorgeous chanted outro of “Kutastha,” inspired by Paris Richenson’s actual practice of meditation and chanting. It’s a beautiful moment because it still earnestly sounds like Parsnip music, not the appropriative or orientalist pastiche that so many old psych rockers have fallen into. It’s a harmonium drone ringing in a slight shift for a band in their new and best era.