Riff Raff

Mojomatics / Another Cheat On Me/Down in the Graveyard (Douchemaster)

Italian garage-blues duo that kicks it up a few notches on this one, but everything else they’ve done to date is also stellar.

Sex Church / Dead End/Let Down (Sweet Rot)

Primal and pounding noise rock that begs more listens—from the spawn of a Defektor and Master Ape brain child.

B-Lines / Burnt CDs EP (Nominal)
Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it punk pop perfection from one of Vancouver’s liveliest acts going.

The Flips / That Girl Stacey EP (Bancroft)
Sexy Shirelles-style sextet knocks out some sweet soul grooves—looking forward to hearing more.

Woven Bones / Your Sorcery/Howlin’ Woof (Sweet Rot)
Sweet Rot grabs two terrific songs out of this Austin, TX trio’s trick bag of sun-baked pysch-punk and I’m smiling from ear to ear.

Johnny Throttle / Stukas Uber Shoreditch EP (Wrench)
When you are only one of two acts that Crypt Records has signed to release a single in the last ten years, you know the stakes are high. With this their first, thankfully, the sound of 1977 has never been better than these U.K. street brats debut.

The Jolts / Born Speedin’/Gimme Gasoline (Eat Shit & Die)
The song titles on this release will double as the epithets written on the tombstones of these local leather-clad greaseballs. While the four-on-the-floor muscle-car rock sound may seemingly be dead, their legacy as one of Vancouver’s hardest rocking bands will never be buried.

Mean Jeans / License 2 Chill EP (Dirtnap)
If you like pizza, skating pools and the Angry Samoans, you will like this record—period. If you don’t, you are not my brah, brah.

The Bon / Stupid Question/Ancient Times (Boppa Do Down)
Toronto quartet puts out one of the snappiest and wittiest garage rock records in recent memory; it will make the guys jealous and the girls dance—guaranteed.

Buzzer / Teacher’s Pet/Stunning Freak (Tic Tac Totally)
California cavemen make a power pop racket that would make the Sweet sweat bullets—basement party music for the masses.