Listen Up, Nerds: The Week of January 26th, 2024

Welcome back to the Listen Up, Nerds Newsletter. No announcements in my world this week, other than Nikola Jokic is a six-time all star and gets to play in... Indianapolis. In February. Wow, what an honor. I hope he has a fun time at the White Castle down the street from the arena. Let's get to the punk rock worth covering this week:

White Knuckle - ICSTQ (Self-released)

A couple of weeks back, there was some big Spin magazine article about the “second wave of Egg Punk” and it felt a little forced if not wholly misinformed. After searching the internet, it looks like a lot of people are wondering what Egg Punk is because they got it on their Spotify Wrapped, which means that The Suits found out about Egg Punk.

The bands in the Spin article all sounded like Coneheads tributes. While Coneheads set the prototype for Egg Punk, there are a lot of Egg Punk bands who don’t sound like Coneheads. What is Egg Punk? It can be DEVO-esque punk rock but it needs to be snottier and more grimy than what Coneheads ripoffs on Third Man Records can offer. I guess this White Knuckle record is Egg Punk. I dunno. It says so on their bandcamp so I’ll give it to them. Definitely my fav thing I’ve found this week. MSPAINT vibes but with more reverb and echo, which is right up my alley. Big shouts to Montreal. I would love to one day visit your fine city and eat enough smoked meats to give myself a disease.

RIYL: MSPAINT, Total Control, Pailhead, being cool but not so cool that it’s intimidating

Etiquette - Demo (Deluxe Bias)

One of the punk rock youtube accounts posted the Etiquette demo last week and wow, what a grimy little three-minute treat. I checked out Deluxe Bias’ bandcamp and they also dropped this single from Hick Tracy (great band name). Both of these are just very fun little tastes of good punk rock and it’s worth checking out even if just to follow what Deluxe Bias puts out in the future. It’s DIY, it’s regional, it’s tight. 

RIYL: Punk rock, being a weirdo, doing it yourself

Ivy Creep - Demo 24 (11 PM)

Ivy Creep is billed as a Richmond supergroup of sorts, even if “supergroup” is one of the worst words known to man. That word is mostly bad because it’s always tied to the worst bands you’ve heard in your life. Damageplan was a supergroup and they killed Dimebag Darrell for playing in it. I think that’s right. This is a good band. It’s like a lot of the anarcho-punk stuff I post on here but less metallic production and more punk. Definitely for denim wearers but maybe not full buttflap territory. Vests, yes. Bullet belts, no. Like the bandcamp description says, extremely Richmond, VA music. 

RIYL: Electric Chair, Firewalker, GISM but also you take showers sometimes

SIKM - Demo (Designated Moshers Unit)

A little something different from Designated Moshers Unit: it’s oi! I don’t really like oi music all that much but I did like the SIKM demo. Every few years, there’s a cool new oi band that every third punk gets into. By that statistic I just made up, a couple hundred people who read this newsletter should be into SIKM this year. Congrats on your new obsession.

RIYL: Blitz, Rixe, The Chisel, stomping around and being a bad neighbor to the ppl who live below you

Old record of the week: Total Control - Typical System

One of my favorite records of the past decade, one of my favorite records of the 2000s, one of my favorite records ever. I’ve listened to this album so many times and have subjected so many friends to it, but nobody’s ever had a problem with that because it’s the best album. Dancy, raucous, and most importantly: Fun. I’m probably missing the point in its execution because there are so many nihilist sentiments on this album, but that doesn’t mean I don’t throw “Glass” or “Flesh War” into almost every DJ set I play. This week, I read an interview where DX of Total Control said he read a bunch of Nietzche and it ruined his life. I think that’s cool. The dystopian reality we have is all we’ve got and Total Control’s music confronts that but makes it at least a little fun on the way down to hell.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the music.