THE PUNGE ROCK MOVEMENT

 

A change has arrived in rock music and it's called PUNGE ROCK! Gone are the boy bands and fake X Factor acts, they are dead and buried.

Now what huge crowds of music fans have been craving and flocking to are live bands, and the crazier they are the more they are loved. There is now a massive wave of Punge bands in England where the movement started, with so many exciting new bands such as Iodine, Inertia, Paranoid Alice, The Fakers, Unified Roots, Content Provider, just too many to mention - check out the PUNGE Rock Playlist

Gneration after generation, there’s always a fresh class of kids picking up electric guitars and making an exciting racket – and new rock acts continue to fill clubs (in normal times), rise up the ranks and push the form forward. 

Much like the '90s when bands were penned ‘grunge,’ you had a group of bands that honestly didn’t sound very similar or maybe didn’t even really share the same ethos, but they all were under that umbrella. It was probably frustrating and weird for all of them to be labeled under this one thing together, but they were better off for it in the end. It became a movement.

This type of sound is finding popularity as a kind of backlash to what we’ve been fed over the last 10 years. Things move in cycles, and new rock ‘n’ roll – not alternative or metal, like a real rock ‘n’ roll sound – has been very hard to find over the last decade.

Inertia - Heaven's Glue (Album Review)

With eleven new tracks, the high-energy Doncaster band have created a perfect fusion of grunge & punk with hints of metal on their debut album. The speed demon power of 'Whats the Point' which opens up the album is only the start of the raw chaos thats in store. 'IDK' keeps the music roaring, while 'Grass on the Green' shows off the musical control the band has achieved through constant giging up and down the country. For such a yound band they display a knack for ear-worms, 'Libra' with its perfect catchy grunge chorus is an obvious single. 'Potty Meat' feels like the band is falling off a cliff while defying, and laughing right into deaths fucking face. 

'Cornello' may be its more sensible evil-twin brother but it stil surges. 'Dear Listener' is a laid back, ethereal shift in mood which shows us that Inertia has many tricks up its sleeve, and is a love letter to their devoted fans. 'Peace of Mind' returns to punk textures, and is the hardest rocking song on the album yet, and a fan favourite. Their lyrics express pure desolation but also hope toward the powers that be, such as on 'Dicktator' a call to arms against tyrants and evil demigods, as it thrashes away leaving bloody faces in its wake. 'Senseless' motors along vitriolic, with a buzzing fuzzbox set on stun, the lyrical barbs personalised and sharpened. 'Scumbag Stitcher' leaves the best for last and is a masterclass rock song, leaving us wanting more sooner than later, they better not take long recording a sophmore album.

Despite the twists of gratuitous Grunge-oid anger that Inertia inflicts throughout the 11 tracks on offer, we feel at home on this record. It's this kind of immediate intimacy which makes Heaven's Glue such a passion-filled ride with its maniac crushing drumming, rumbling catchy bass riffs, and abuse ridden six-string power chords. 

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM HERE

PARANOID ALICE’S DEBUT ALBUM ‘MENTAL ILLNESS FOR THE MASSES’ FOR KAMIKAZE SUMMER RELEASE

Over the past month Paranoid Alice have been in Electric Fields studio with Chris White recording their debut ‘Mental Illness For The Masses’. After a tense first few days of inner band fights ”stop fucking smiling”, “more reverb!!”, trying to record haunted accordions, ‘5-6-7-8’ count in’s, & demands for more cowbell, the album is a mix of dark psych/punk & anthemic grunge rock. Spidery psych guitars were whipped & wah-wah’ed, bass FX’s were pushed to 11, while killer drum heads were smashed. The band combines a wild guitar thrashing stage act with dark poetry, chemistry, and sexuality that delves into a twisted Alice In Wonderland cinematic dreamscape. 

This album comes along as an exciting line of new rock bands such as Black Midi, Squid & Dry Cleaning have appeared; but Paranoid Alice is their psychotic glam sibling. While band members Fab (guitar, sitar, vocals), Luca (bass, vocals), Mat ‘Krug’ (drums, screams) have been gearing up for more live gigs, heres what they have to say about the album so far: 

Fab: ”We’ve made a special unhinged schizophrenic album, I wanted to mix acid-rock, and grunge, where every song has the potential to be an anthem and to infest different genre’s. Some songs have catchy psych/grunge choruses & Oasis melodies, but others will rip your brain out like In Utero, or are experimental like Sonic Youth. We’re a gang and these songs need to be played at maximum volume. You’ll also hear new guitar moon sounds that have never been heard before. I've been listening to Joe Meek, Delia Derbyshire & Martin Hammett productions, mixing them with electric ragas, reverse solos, and sound collages of dictators, plus an evil cat recorded in a graveyard.’

Luca “This album is gonna be some of the wildest shit you’ve ever heard. Punk rock aggression, crushing riffs, blistering solos, whiplash genre changes… we just let our imagination run riot for 12 tracks. Some of the songs are deeply meaningful, some are just dumb stupid fun. Please keep your arms, legs, ears and minds inside the ride vehicle at all times.”

Mat: ”I’m so excited about this album. Its come together really nicely. To say that we set out on a tight budget, been hit back so many times because of COVID, it’s nice to see it all come into fruition! What really makes this album so good is that we all have such varied tastes, and influences, in our own personal style yet it all blends together so seemlessly! It’s time to get proper music back out on the scene and shift away from samey manufactured drivel that has plagued us over the last decade and we are going to rock, riding the crest of the wave, as we bring that back!”