punk this week: sick thoughts, osees, yuasa-exide, harry sings! + 15 more
I would like to state for the record that the new release from Mr. [Redacted] absolutely rips.
Hey, it’s Punk This Week, see/saw’s Friday column collecting the best punk and rock'n'roll records to grace speakers all over the planet. There are two exceptional records from Minneapolis punk rockers’ solo projects, new ones from the powerhouses Drew Owen and John Dwyer, some absolutely stellar records from Germany, and a new band from Athens, Georgia that I can’t get enough of.
There’s seriously some incredible new records that you absolutely must check out. To access Punk This Week this time and every time, you’ve got to sign up for $4/month or $40/year. There’s a two-week free trial if you want to try it out. That said, most of the stuff you get on this website is free. I try to keep the cost low, and honestly, I throw the majority of the money back to the punk community—to artists, writers, labels, etc.
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Sick Thoughts: Another Piece of Plastic [Rokk]
Drew Owen, the formerly troubled Baltimore teen and now troubled New Orleans adult behind Sick Thoughts, keeps himself plenty busy. In the middle of a run with Total Hell last year, he put out a DD DETH loosie and was apparently working on this new one. It feels like the guiding aesthetic of this record is just “electric guitar.” On “Me and My Guitar,” a tribute to the immortal nature of putting out a rock’n’roll record, he multi-tracks these Thin Lizzy-style doubled up guitar solos. The title track finds that balance where the acoustic guitar is a more muted rhythm section and leads to a big electric payoff.
Another Piece of Plastic is just five songs, but it’s some of the most range he’s shown as a songwriter on a Sick Thoughts record (which is saying something, Heaven Is No Fun was a new creative leap at the time). That’s most evident on “The Doom,” where he lets the guitar do all the heavy lifting when it comes to packing the punch, but his vocals are genuinely cooing as the record winds to a close. The record makes a strong case for Drew’s continued embrace of sweet’n’sour songwriting. When you’ve built your legacy on screaming relentlessly and revving the chainsaw, a record like this feels inspired, and I definitely hope there’s more where this came from.
