punk this week: powerplant, the vacant lot + 19 more

It’s Punk This Week, see/saw’s weekly punk and rock’n’roll recommendations column. It’s a Bandcamp Friday, which means there’s so much you should be grabbing that’s brand new and well-seasoned. This week, it’s worth highlighting some stellar 7" releases from Powerplant and the Vacant Lot, some standout debuts from around the world, and a pile of stellar hardcore demos. You gotta check out this Happy Death Men album.

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Powerplant: Crashing Cars [Arcane Dynamics]

With 2019’s People in the Sun, London’s Powerplant briefly felt like the biggest new punk band in the world. The project threaded the needle between post-punk and egg: catchy and oddball with a commanding bark. Everything after that was a frustrating toss-up, and I could no longer feel steadfast excitement about their output once I heard their limp dungeon synth game OST record Stump Soup. I probably would’ve liked it more if it came out under a different project name; it was a ballsy sharp turn, but one that left all the things that made Powerplant exciting out in the cold. They’ve since put out EPs and singles that recaptured that People in the Sun momentum, but the caveat loomed: their next move could be another CD-ROM OST snooze.

The Crashing Cars 7” has me all the way back to excitement. Sometimes when you say a band’s sound has matured, it’s a euphemism for a cloying self-seriousness. But by polishing up their aesthetic to something that sounds closer to ’80s major label new wave than the NWI monsters of DIY, Powerplant have made some of their best work yet. They lean into a synth pop sensibility while maintaining their jagged punk instincts. It’s music that bounces and swoons. Theo Zhykharyev is full-on crooning on the B-side “Never Smile,” veering into the more pop-forward new wave territory of synth punk and the moodiness of goth. Meanwhile, “Crashing Cars” is beatific and danceable. People in the Sun was a great record; Crashing Cars deepens and expands upon their early instincts. I pray to Christ they stay here for a bit and don’t sleepwalk me back to the dungeon synth toilet.