Juventud Juché "Miedo / En tu Casa" (Sonido Muchacho)

[€1.95 to Download //€5 for 7" Vinyl // https://sonidomuchacho.bandcamp.com/album/sm-024-miedo-en-tu-casa]

Two new songs, a mean three minutes each, from one of my favorite bunch of punk rockers out of Madrid, Spain.     Juventud Juche has been in steady rotation here for quite some time, proving the obvious notion that music transcends any sort of language barrier, and now Sonido Muchacho is releasing this single as a 7".   Just like when my dad was a kid.    Should you buy this?  I don't want to tell you what to do with your money, but absolutely you should.

Milo's Planes "Aural Palate Cleaning Exercises"

[€5 for CD or Download // https://milosplanes.bandcamp.com/album/aural-palate-cleaning-exercises]

When I first started listening to this- and I mean the very first time, within the first song or two- I could hear some Cheap Trick but that actually ended up changing as the album went on and the more that I listened to it the more I could only hear this as a sort of punk rock n roll or punk n roll even.

Somewhere between Local H by way of their first album and Refused this has a definite quality of loud rock that also reminds me of just the first time that I heard Trail of Dead and that in and of itself should be enough for this to be in your top rotation not just this year but forever.

You know, even if Milo's Planes are my age or around it anyway there is no guarantee that they listened to and are influenced by the same things as me so when I hear what I hear some other people might hear something more recent in a sense.   And that's what you have to love about this heavy, sing it till you lose your voice rock because there is so much of it out there you can pick and choose the good bits of it to create an amazing album such as "Aural Palate Cleansing Exercises".

Desperate Journalist "Desperate Journalist" (Fierce Panda / Minty Fresh)

[£12 // Edition of 250 // http://desperatejournalist.bandcamp.com/merch/desperate-journalist-12-album]

Falling somewhere between the 1980's and the present, Desperate Journalist combines a good number of sounds to craft one their own.   From Duran Duran, Blondie, Concrete Blonde and R.E.M. to The Cranberries, The Box Tiger, Heart, Thursday and The Cure these songs are somewhere between punk and not because they can be fast paced at times while other times not as much.

It's a musical complexity as there are guitar notes galore and precision drumming and bass lines combined to make something that you might not otherwise think possible.   The songs have this appeal to them where the choruses tend to have hooks that get stuck in your head so in that way I'd also say they're a little pop but I can get metal riffs stuck in my head just as easily so don't quote me on the pop part.

I became a fan of Desperate Journalist listening to this album and hearing the various influence of other artists that I like, and even those which I don't like I can think of this as being a better version of them.    I only truly began to appreciate this though when I realized that for all of its influences I can name this still just stands tallest on its own merits.