[engl] There's Aliens In Our Midst! Transmitting from the same warbley orbit as fellow Californians Twinkeyz, as well as outliers Roxy Music, and Gary Numan's Tubeway Army, Andy Human (The World, Naked Roommate, Time Flys) and The Reptoids are back with their first full length in almost four years. In the time between they've teased us with a bunch of killer singles. A succession of short blast preparing the world for their eventual invasion. Here we are in the 2019 and the mothership is descending. 'Psychic Sidekick' is a 10 track transmission of intent. Space is the place and The Reptoids are here to carry us away.

[engl] BRANDY features members of PAMPERS and RUNNING and released a killer 12" on MONOFONUS last year. This is their second release and it's just as much a brain bludgeon as their first. Following in the knuckle dragging, pavement scraping, blood trails as such acts as LAMPS and MAYYORS, BRANDY lays down a scuzz heavy sonic pummeling over this two track single. Loud, brutal, fuzzed.

[engl] New York's Brandy (Ex-Pampers, Running) are back with their sophomore LP and first on TOTAL PUNK. "The Gift of Repetition" is an eight track study in just that. Loud plodding and rhythmic. It will have you bobbing your head till it breaks off your neck. They all share vocal duties often chanting over each other and the lyrics are singular in vision. Bleak with a grin. Synth is added on a few tracks with mind-melting results. When the only other bands that come to mind are A-Frames, Lamps and Mayyors you are obviously doing something right. Pulsing, throbbing, and 100% TOTAL PUNK!!! Limited to 350 copies!

[engl] It's always nice to put out something from your hometown. It's even better when that something is this good. Cherry Cheeks is the work of fellow Orlando resident ( recently relocated to Portland) Kyle Harms. Started in early 2020, CHERRY CHEEKS was born out of countless hours stuck in front of a computer screen with a raging pandemic outside. Kyle put his boredom, boiling over anger, and frustration to work and started a new project. He put out a few bandcamp EPS and limited run tapes that a mutual friend back home turned me onto. He also informed me that there was even better stuff that hadn't yet been released. I hit Kyle up, he sent me a few tracks, and boy was my friend right. EGG PUNK, DEVO-CORE, QUARANTINE PUNK.. whatever the kids are calling it these days this is 12 tracks of bass driven, pop stained, punk agitation. I'm very proud of this record and am ecstatic to say it is indeed 100% TOTAL PUNK!!!!

[engl] New York’s Foster Care is back with a brand new LP for Total Punk, and the first since adding Allison Busch (Awesome Colors, Call Of The Wild) on drums. El Abuso finds Foster Care at their most realized. It’s tight wound, ferocious, dark and dare I say smart. Has Foster Care grown up? Have they left their foster parents for the half way house? An 11 song nineteen minute punk maelstrom. This isn't a collection of songs it's a heaving beast. An absolutely relentless wall of pounding drums, vicious guitar, and gnarly bass rumble with Chris Teenager biting the air above it all. They even finds some moments to get weird and reflective between the throbbing outburst and violent spasms. Mean, loud, and 100% TOTAL PUNK!

[engl] "To call ‘Remain Intact’ the work of an auteur might not be the proper usage of the term, but I can think of nothing else to call a piece of art expressing a singular vision with such perfection. GG King is a band first and foremost, but this LP is Greg King’s mind cracked open like a melon for all of us to peer into, from the music, to the lyrics, to the carefully constructed artwork. He’s assembled a crack unit of ATL’s finest players to help him articulate this vision, and under the peerless guidance of Ryan (Dinosaur) Bell they have created a record that will appeal to any rocker with a soul, heart and/or mind. Heshers, punkers, hardcores, powerpoppers, garage turkeys, everyone is welcome and should find something to love here. 13 tracks clocking in at around some of the most rewarding 40 minutes of music you’re going to listen to this year, with a companion cassette filled with bonus material that most bands would be releasing as their masterpiece LP. It’s difficult to find a punk record invested with any sort of real personality or emotional heft these days, but King somehow does just that without sacrificing any rock’n’roll power. The title track is slice of upbeat power-pop with a hard punk edge and a King-sized hook. “God’s Chalk” makes me stumble for a description, and instead just blurt out punk-death-rock-metal like some kind of boob. “Golden Horde Rising” is straight garage thrash. Heavy stuff. Visceral thrills aside, it’s songs like “Cul de Sac” that really get your mind cranking – lyrical subtleties about pride in your home and neighborhood and their defense against the spectre of evil we are all too familiar with these days played out aside a dirgey doom-rock background. “Epoch Rock” encapsulates the current American mindspace in a 5-minute garage-punk song. It’s themes like this where the record truly excels – for as much of a rocking affair it is, it also provides plenty to think about – it’s a record indirectly about him, and therefore us – about the fears of growing old and obsolete, the creeping darkness that looms around the current American landscape and seeks to poke its tendrils into our daily lives, the feeling when you realize that your life is probably made up of more memories than it is remaining living moments. Listen to “Timesick (Doom and Gloom Part 3)” and think hard about what you’ve been doing with your own time. And even as though those darker themes recur, there’s also a warmth to the whole proceeding – memories are wonderful things to hold, and I imagine it’s by no mistake the second to last song is a Carbonas tune Greg wrote twenty years ago with his now departed friend BJ Womack, here given a wonderful reprise. And look no further than the insert picture of the band and their families laying together in what I like to the think is the same cul de sac referred to earlier. That’s what this record is really about – no matter what tidal wave of shit is barreling down at all of us these days, don’t let it wash away your life, your soul, what you live for, who you live for – remain intact against it all. REMAIN INTACT. It’s not very often I leave my cave these days and let the sun touch my decrepit form, but crawling to the mailbox to retrieve this LP was a rewarding experience, and trust me, it will be for you as well."- Rich Kroneiss

[engl] German punk provocateurs Heavy Metal are back with a brand new LP and first for Total Punk. Over the last four years Heavy Metal has put out four absolutely essential albums and we are proud as pudding to have them back on the TOTAL PUNK train. Heavy Metal isn't a heavy metal band, Live at the Gas Station isn't a live album (they refuse to even play live), and opener Motorhead has nothing to do with Lemmy or his mole. Such is the audacious and absurd world of Heavy Metal. Leading off with the reverb blanketed JAMC vibing 'Motorhead.' For a band that embraces putting their filthy lint covered stamp on any and all musical genres the soft dreamy touches of the album opener leaves us asking "Has Heavy Metal cut it's hair?" Before you have time to answer, the boys fill the tank, drop the clutch, and kick into the HUBBLIN BUBBLIN 'Motorbike' and rarely let up for the remainder of the LP. Occasionally wandering into the weird and warbled on tracks like 'No Air', 'I Am Something', and the hypnotic lurch of 'Centipede Venom.' However 'V:Live at the Gas Station Fighting the Devil' spends most of its time daring us to herk, jerk, spazz out, and let loose. Party music for party mutants. 100% TOTAL PUNK

[engl] Total Punk is proud to present the debut 7" from Minneapolis supergroup IV (featuring members of Joust, Citric Dummies, Color TV, ). A four song fist pumping face pummel. A band well aware of the power of punk simplicity and wielding it with perfection. Buzzsaw guitars, quick chords changes, and the occasional stop/ start all propelled forward by huge vocal hooks. I first saw these guys at an American Legion last year and the songs were still stuck in my head when they sent these recordings four months later.

[engl] Cleveland's KNOWSO is another project from the PERVERTS AGAIN/ CRUELSTER camp and it's every bit as demented as you've come to expect from these lads. Dark lumbering repetitive punk incantations driven along by tom heavy neanderthalic drums, chant heavy vocals, and shoulder shaking bass grooves. These boys have a pentiant for off balance hardcore rumblings and KNOWSO is their newest platform in which to do so.

[engl] Total Punk is keeping things in Atlanta, following up GG KING's- 'Remain Intact' with PREDATOR's new album 'Spiral Unfolds.' The two bands share members including Ryan Bell who masterfully recorded both albums. Atlanta has the the best punk scene going and Predator are one of its longest running practitioners. Despite the seven years since their last full length, and vocalist Brannon Greene splitting time between Predator and his other projects, Hospice and Nag (both of which just dropped new albums), 'Spiral Unfolds' shows the band still rules the void. The wiry punk minimalism of their previous outings still intact but complemented with a bit more muscle courtesy of the interplay between the two buzzsaw guitars. Brannon's android tinged vocals occasionally giving off a Tubeway Army gone hardcore vibe. 'Spiral Unfolds' is Predator at it's peak. Hypnotic, driving, and 100% TOTAL PUNK.

[engl] Smirk is a solo project from Nic Vicario (CEMENTO). Following the release of ‘LP’ on Feel It (US) and Drunken Sailor (EU/UK) earlier this year, Smirk is back with a brand new EP. While ‘LP’ compiled Smirk’s two limited run cassettes, ‘EP’ is seven fresh tracks of wiry well-crafted punk with heaps of hooks. Sharp guitars and anxious one note leads adding tension to the locked in propulsive groove of the bass and drums. Nic Vicario, doing his best ‘man on wire’ routine, exudes cool confidence while poking at the anxieties of modern life. Strutting his way to the apocalypse one jittery jam at a time, ‘EP’ is agitated, catchy, and bouncy as hell. 200 pro-printed clear/clear cassettes housed in a color J-Card inside a Norelco box. Recorded by Nic Vicario. Mastered by Will Killingsworth. Art by Smoking Room.

[engl] Total Punk is proud to be releasing the third LP by shed dwellers TRUE SONS OF THUNDER. Featuring members of Manateees, Oblivians, Mangina, Rat Traps...TSOT has turned not caring into an art form and even unknowingly submitted a track from their second LP for inclusion on this one. Sour tunes for sour times. Lurching low end, two guitars and a banjitar that make a cacaphanous symphony which can only be described as amp torture. Southern RAWK in a concrete mixer. Dad rock for deadbeats! This was the record Total Punk was made to put out and it only took us 8 years to get here. Loud, broken, out of tune, and 100% TOTAL PUNK!!!!