Soundwaves: English noise rock revival, Georgia sludge, ’70s Japanese psych, and a heavy blast from Christmas past
There’s been a lotta rock in the speakers lately—mostly pretty heavy stuff, but also a fair amount of lively psych and b-side classic rock stuff. I’ve got no shortage of musical enablement for those listening habits, but here are four releases that have held spots at the top of the regular rock 'n' roll rotation for the last couple of months…
Mclusky, I Sure Am Getting Sick of This Bowling Alley (Ipecac Records, 2026)
The latest EP from this noisy English rock band—which formed in 1996, broke up in 2005, and have been on a long and meandering revival since 2014—has been getting a lot of play on the turntable lately. It’s raucous and noisy but catchy and, in Mclusky fashion, a bit cheeky without being overtly jokey. Watch this recent live performance on KEXP—the host talks too much but the set is amazing.
Harvey Milk, WhaRvEy milK (Chunklet Industries, 2026)
In 1994, Athens, GA’s favorite heavy bummer-jammers had been a band for a couple of years when they recorded this session at WREK radio studios in Atlanta, and they were already a force to be reckoned with. One of my favorite things about this band is that they manage to pull moments of odd beauty out of otherwise crushing, down-tuned riffage. And this session is proof that they’ve been doing that since the jump.
Various Artists, Far East New Rock Inventions 1969 -1975 (180g, 2026)
This compilation of Japanese psych and straight ahead rock from the ’70s is dirty, groovy, and fun. There’s plenty of hot, fuzzy wah-ed out guitar licks, deep rhythm pockets, and the necessary keys, horns, some sitar…all the accents that define rock from that era. And it all comes together in a collection that’s effortlessly cool and obviously Japanese.
Unsane, AmRep Christmas (Man’s Ruin, 1997 )
As part of a recent basement spring cleaning exercise, I went through two huge boxes of old CDs I haven't touched in many, many years. Most of them are bound for Amoeba, but I distilled the keepers down to a pretty small collection of albums that aren’t readily available anymore (not on streaming, hard to find in physical formats). I thought this absolute gem of a live set, from the Amphetamine Reptile Records Christmas party in 1996, fit that bill. Recorded during a great time for heavy noise rock and the independent music scene that grew out of an abundance of (pre-web 2.0) independent record label activity, there’s a natural, convivial light heartedness to this set despite the heavy gnarliness of the music. Maybe that’s just the Christmas spirit. Anyway, turns out this isn’t the rarity I thought it was. Unsane guitarist Chris Spencer loaded all the old Unsane albums, including this one and some other nuggets from his archive, on to BandCamp a few years ago. I’m glad he did, and I gave him another $10 for it. But I’m still keeping the old CD.
