Top Surprise - Everything Must Go

Pug Records, a new label located in Brazil, has just released this awesome tape from a band called Top Surprise. They play a brand of shitgaze with an influence in pop-punk. The vocals are great as far as the lo-fi aesthetic goes - sounds like they're coming out of blown out speakers. The fuzzy guitars lazily sway back and forth and meld perfectly with the hollow drums. I'm not sure if the band is from Brazil, but all the vocals seem to be in english. It'd be nice (assuming they're from brazil) if they had some songs in their native tongue as it's always nice to listen to music in another language. The tape ends with a folky Jeff Mangum-esque song. All in all it's a solid tape and I look forward to seeing this band mature

The record label, which I mentioned earlier, just started out. This is their second release and apart from producing awesome handmade lo-fi tape releases they actually offer all the music they have (except for their distro stuff) for FREE. That's right, they actually support blogs and agree that, without this sort of attention, most underground bands might not reach as much people....

Make sure to check out their other release and also take a look at what they're offering at their distro because they have some REALLY great tapes for sale like Beat Happening, Tiger Trap, and a few under-appreciated Elephant 6 bands!

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Pug Records

Japanther - Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt

While looking for a picture of this band, I ran across a forum with a topic in which some fat neanderthal got sucker punched for talking shit and heckling during a Japanther show and everyone in the thread cheered him on!! What the fuck is the world coming to? Full of barbarians, I tell ya. The kid kept complaining about "hipsters" and "pitchfork" during his pity speech... Here's a link for your enjoyment; http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=12967.30

Oh well...

This is a pretty interesting release from this fuzz-laden lo-fi-punk duo. In between the sonic freak outs there are various spoken word segments dealing with Africa and Necromancy....pretty creepy stuff. Definitely worth checking out if you're into raw pop-punk.

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The Twerps - s/t cassette

One of my favorite releases from last year! The Twerps, an Australian Lo-Fi Pop band featuring hollow drums, jangly guitars and soft spoken vocals with a bit of emotional bite in the lyrics. They have a really melodramatic, introverted feel. Definitely better suited for nights when you're alone rather than on the way to some party. Simple guitar rhythms weave in and out over muffled vocals and tape hiss. Some songs, like "Dance Alone", evoke a completely different time period with lyrics revolving around asking girls to dances and punching kids named "joe" - not to mention the spoken word verses with a 50's/60's twang to them. It's as if Ponyboy started making music instead of saving kids from burning buildings and inadvertently killing his friend as a result.

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