Friday, April 09, 2004


It feels like ages since I last mentioned some new wax here (not that there were too many discs of worth so far this year), but slowly some goodies are startin' to appear on HQ's doormat. Biggest surprise yet is a 10" LP by Dutch p-rockers the Sack-O'-Woes. Fine, fine wailin' stuff, that avoids all the trappings that spoil so much of the form's output these days, and easily the best Dutch disc of it's kind in ages, and dig their take on "A House In The Country". And speakin'of surprises; how's about a damn near perfect powerpop LP from Japan?. Let me please introduce you to Teenage Confidential, probably the best band to emerge from Nippon since Teengenerate. Even with the lyrics bein' close to incomprehensible (and thus makin' singin' along out of the question), the songs 'emselves are extremely well crafted (think Nerves, Beat, Cheap Trick, Boys, Redd Kross etc), and with a real solid production, this beats just about every powerpop-by-numbers disc put out in the past decade or so (you might wanna skip the first tune tho'). As much as the new Bobbyteens LP is a disappointment due to it's lo-fi sounds, Tina Lucchesi's other current band the Deadly Weapons offer a much better proposistion, solid west coast punk that seriously reminds me of the mighty Avengers. And while we're at it; be on the look out for two new 45s in Norton's Stones tribute series (tho' the Lyres disc contains nothin' new sadly), and a nicely executed double 10" of the Prisoners' TheWiserMiserDemelza with bonus tracks on Munster...