All Borders are Porous to Cats is World/Inferno Friendship Society’s most concepty-concept album. Roughly speaking, the album is about The Cat in the Hat (but not the one from Dr. Seuss… cough… cough…ahem…) sneaking across Trump’s border wall only to be arrested by ICE and put on trial for his crimes. Then, lead singer Jack Terricloth enters into the album narrative itself to plead on behalf of the Cat. Also, the shifting dynamic of the band their intra-relations is weaved throughout the

This is a cool little split seven inch that feels a bit like a throwback. It features two stylistically different bands, from opposite coasts, each doing an original and a classic punk cover.

Pennsylvania hardcore stalwarts Wisdom In Chains get side A, and kick things off with “Richie’s Revenge”. It actually starts out sort of mellow with some catchy punk rock backing vocals before going full NYHC. It eventually doubles back and finds a good balance between the two sounds. The Epoxies’

Well, first of all, L.A. Machina’s debut 7-inch is LOUD. Welcome to the Machina is mastered to be a big record and it sounds huge. There’s only three people in the band (Michelle Balderrama of Brainspoon/The Darts, Suzi Moon of Civet/Turbulent Hearts, and Rikki Styxx of Death Valley Girls/The Darts), but they use that trident to make a simple, powerful record.

Both tracks here are uptempo, high energy rockers that borrow a little bit form Iggy, a little bit from Joan Jett, and ma

If you like sleazy, greasy punk and roll, and you should, The Cheats are the band for you. Since 2001, various lineups of the Pittsburgh quintet have been cranking out high octane punk in the tradition of Dead Boys, Motӧrhead, New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. They’re fronted by Todd Cheat, who notably sang for the late ‘80s/early ‘90s crossover thrash band Eviction. (They made a record called The World Is Hours Away in 1990 for Metal Blade.) Later in the ‘90s,

The People’s Key wasn’t a terrible album, but, for the final Bright Eyes release, it was a bit of a weak way to bow out. It could have been a pretty good debut album, but with all that we knew Bright Eyes to be capable of over the course of their career, The People’s Key paled in comparison. It’s why, even though Bright Eyes broke up in 2011 and Conor Oberst embarked on a solo career, alongside a number of side projects, I always got the feeling that, someday, Bright Eyes would

Psychosomatic formed in Sacramento in 1988, about the same time I was really getting into thrash. Somehow, I’m only just learning of them now, 32 years later, on their 7th full length, The Invisible Prison. Better late than never, I suppose. Especially when it comes to finding a band playing traditional, neck wrecking thrash, without being younger guys doing a retro thing. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) Psychosomatic are the real deal in the vein of Slayer, Exodus and Hir