Armand Margejka was born an Albanian small town Tropoia, located on the highland near the border of Kosovo. Tropoia district has had a long reputation as one of the wildest and most conservative regions in Albania, virtually out of control of every government in Tirana. The family arsenal often takes up a whole room and typically includes anti-tank mines, hand grenades, and rocket launchers besides rifles, revolvers, machine guns, stilettos, swords, baseball bats and all sorts of old guns which goes from father to son. Instead of insurance brokers insurgence agents go about the countryside. Albania was the most isolated and most poorest among the Eastern-European communist states. The Stalinism was the most persistent here. Moreover there are the tribal differences and the beautiful tradition of vendetta.

Margejka’s musical influences were Western cinema, MTV Europe, and fortuitous cassette tape of American pop/rock legends Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley taught Margjeka the fundamentals of rock and roll, and subsequently the English language. The country is however friendly and secure, he has changed Albania for Alabama. He plays indie folk rock with sure hands.

„Hummingbird” LP, CD on Communicating Vessels (USA)

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Ghetto Ghouls are (a handyman, a geography assistant, a sound guy, and a student) like their predecessor Texan punks,  Bobby Soxx, Dicks, Stick Man With Rayguns or Scratch Acid. This 7” couples a pair of songs from the S/T LP sessions

Frankly, I’m fed up with garage rock. And Straight Arrows are also a garage rock band, but luckily in Australia. I can tell lots of fashionable phrase about their music: fuzzy, psychedelic, garage rock, punk attitude etc. But all the same, it’s wonderful.

„Rising” LP, CD, digital album on Rice Is Nice (AUS), Agitated (UK) and Hozac Records (USA) on next week

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Koiran Nakoinen Nainen (= Dog Looking Woman). Nice melodic Finnish lo-fi punk from Manchester of the North, aka Tampere.

Kesämuistoja (= Summer Memories) 7″ EP on Blast of Silence with fabulous cover art

Surprising that HSY started as a one woman band in Canada. Post-punk with sludge metal

7″ on Buzz (Can) and Too Pure Records (UK)

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There was a special local taste of punk in Germany, but Küken could be in any garage of the world. Because of the harbour, maybe.

debut 7″ coming soon on Bachelor Records (Austria)

The Anomalys. Pirmitive Dutch hard rock’n roll trio

7″ on Slovenly Recordings (USA/Europe)

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Are you unwell? Don’t worry!  Doctor Nod raises a smile on your face with his easy slop pop cure

Cassette and digital single on Resurrection Records (USA)

mysterious noisy lo-fi garage pop punk project in New Zealand
inspired by teen romance, suburban boredom and Buddy Holly

PERFECT HAIR FOREVER – SAD & BLUE

from Zero EP by Crystal Magic Records.

Critical Hits! Free download V/A album
is full of various high standard lo-fi synth punk by Crystal Magic.

A G E N D E R is a strange synth punk band in Australia. It has started as Romy Hoffman’s one woman lo-fi punk project. She’s also known as a hip-hop artist under the name of Macromantics. His project has morphed into a trio. On drums: experimental electronic musician Melissa Agate, aka Sanso-Xtro. After these it’s surprising that the bass player Yolanda DeRose is just from a simple garage rock band, Mass Culture Suicide. The second album „is a spillage of sexual secrets and the purging of perversions.” The first track is a little deceiving…

„Fixations” LP on Desire Records (France)

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The singer and drummer met volatile French guitarist in London after he left an ad in their studio listing Television, Ennio Morricone and “everything at DFA Records” as influences. (DFA is an electronic dance music label, co-founded by James Murphy of LCD Sound System.) The most interesting person is the bass player, Jade Spranklen, who is also playing for the British pop singer Whinnie Williams (aka Sunday Girl), and she is an excellent illustrator, but cannot draws free style rap. But Felt Tip is an indie rock band like XTC or Gang of Four.

Simple Things digital EP on Fierce Panda (UK) on 9 June

There was a fantastic night with LOS VIGILANTES (punk, Puerto Rico)
and PAINT FUMES (garage rock, USA). On this picture they’re together.

MORE PICS by GYERAGE

links and music

CONDOMINIUM is signed by Sub Pop Records,
so they’re not a simple American hardcore/punk band

Budapest, Trafik Klub, 02 June 8 pm, ticket: 1000,  Facebook

Euro Tour is on

more pics by Csaba Fehér           various songs from the bands

No Babies are like the legendary Swiss jazzcore bands, Alboth! and 16-17

7″ EP by Gilgongo (US) and Upset The Rhythm Records (UK)

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Ed preformed solo for 3 years traveling the country with his voice and a drum. He was asked to play a rave in Baltimore. Looking to expand his performance, he asked Devlin to join him onstage with his bass. Since then the two have been making minimal post punk rock. And it’s so strange than pairing of David Bowie and King Diamond, because they’re their favourite artists. Ed Schrader’s Music Beat

Party Jail album on Infinity Cat (US) and Upset The Rhythm Records (UK)

Their debut album Jazz Mind was released by cult label Load Records.

There’re some dates for UK in early June            Free download

Hallelujah brothers and sisters, hallelujah!
Here is an alternative version of the video „Adam”
by the infamous Czech disco art punk band I LOVE 69 POPGEJU

from the album Let’s Gold Corridor. Here is the original video.
The clips are made by art group RAFANI.

SLEAFORD MODS‘ drum’n’bass music is like
a mix of The Fall and The Streets.

The band was born in foking Notthingham, out of part frustration and part accident, it quickly found its feet as an aggressive verbal onslaught on all that is contrived and connected to the foking day-to-day hammer of low paid employment and domestic situations arising from that foking trap.

Tied Up In Nottz

from the album Divide And Exit on Harbinger Sound. Buy here.