Peterbilt b/w From The Ashes – Zeke (Hound Gawd Records)

If you have to ask what it sounds like you’ve never heard a Zeke record. Like most, if not all of them, ”Peterbilt” throttles along like a speed-freak with a headful of crank chasing white lines down an autobahn where there’s no posted limit. If it’s too fast you’re probably too old (and I might will be.)

Live, the band is visceral. On record, they’re all heat with no shade - and so it is with this 45.

“From The Ashes” is dominated by the declaration “this is the night – let’s go” and does what it’s told. The A side might be a song about the “Peterbilt” truck brand but ends up a blur, so it’s hard to tell without a lyric sheet. The briefest of guitar solos tears through the middle like high-beam headlights.

Let’s be real - if you’re chasing Zeke thrills you’re not in search of sensitive balladry and the words don’t much matter anyway. This single likely won’t be streamed and will end up selling out, so it’s for the fans. The blurb calls it "a must-have for punk vinyl collectors and anyone who craves explosive riffs, breakneck drumming, and pure punk chaos" and I don't feel like arguing. 

Buy it 

Third In Line For The Throne b/w Yeah Orright – The VeeBees (Evil Twin)

Twenty-five years of The VeeBees? Hard to believe but here’s the proof that they still excel at excess. The A side is a stringing sub two-minute trip of raging guitars and fun. The VeeBees’ engine room has never sounded more powerful.

And the lyrics? They’re about lining up when you really need to lay a cable and (thankfully) have nothing about the succession plans of entitled and terminally boring Royals.

At a tick over three minutes “Yeah Orright” is an odyssey in comparison. The band eases off the throttle and while Its lyrical journey doesn’t go much further than the chorus, the chugging guitars stick like shit to a blanket. That term could apply equally to "Third In Line".

The VeeBees don’t own Yob Rock but they’ve carved out their own little corner, spanning Canberra and Wollongong. More power to their (drinking) arm. As the boys themselves say: "Four blokes, 3 chords, 2 brain cells, 1 carton of beer." 

1/2

Buy the download

Buy the vinyl

And Now Is The Twilight Of Our Empire – Josh Lord (Music The Lord Taught Us)

It’s three songs and digital only. Produced by Loki Lockwood of Spooky Records. The eponymous title track, then “I Can No Longer Remember The Future” and “The Warm Embrace of Machine”.

What we have here might initially strike you as some very cleverly manipulated drone. However, “drone” is, along with terms like “ambient”, “post-punk” and “industrial”, an incredibly misleading descriptor. 

Unemployment Blues b/w Junkie/Imagainary Hitman - The Hideous (Bootleg Booze)

Some will say it’s sacrilegious to say it but The Hellacopters sometimes sounded like a guitar solo in search of a band. Stockholm’s The Hideous draw all the obvious comparisons to those Scandi rock elder statesmen with their fondness for the wah-wah pedal, but do the  high-energy business with much less fuss.

They’re young and raw and this looks like their debut release, coming from esteemed Swedish label Bootleg Booze.

Back On Broadway EP – Handsome Dick Manitoba (Heavy Medication/Ghost Highway/Take The City)

He’s back and as bombastic and brash as ever. Handsome Dick Manitoba and the band he made his name with, The Dictators, are irrevocably divorced, but The King of Men punches on with this four-song vinyl EP, comprising two new studio tracks and a brace recorded on the road.

In case you didn’t know, Manitoba’s been doing a bit of touring in the USA and Europe with his own bands after the big split and something of a slow motion fall from grace away from the stage. If you’re not familiar with the story, the title track “Back On Broadway” spells it all out:

Window Pane b/w Born To Follow - The Tommmys (Fry Up Records)

With a storied membership of guitarist-vocalist Ollie Laurie (The Exotics), bassist Jonathan Lickliter (Died Pretty) and drummer Rob Lastdrager (T Bones), this red vinyl 45 from Aussie trio The Tommys promised to deliver something out of the box on this 45. And they do.

The Tommys play surf-influenced garage rock that's so out of kilter with anything you'd hear tin mainstream radio that it could only flourish in the darker recesses of the divergent Melbourne rock scene. Open chord twang and spiralling leads pull against alternately surging or shuffling rhythms to create a dark undercurrent.

People went nuts for this stuff in Europe in the pre-grunge 1980s - and probably still would, given the right distribution.