Since 2010, singer songwriter Justin Kline’s on-off recording career has taken in various different aspects of melodic pop and rock. His early solo releases explored a classic power pop sound; as frontman with the short-lived Origami Hologram, he ventured into a very retro world of alternative rock, before his return to solo work occasionally took him in a Weezer-ly direction.
Tag Archives: indie
GET THE FUCK OUTTA DODGE & DAS KAPITANS – Dodge Does Das Does Dodge EP
Released in November 2022 with no hint of promotion, this surprise split release from Get The Fuck Outta Dodge and Das Kapitans is a treat for fans of either band. With a shared label and a shared goal in terms of noise-making, these musical friends have much in common, but scratch beneath the surface and it’s obvious that each band comes with their own very clear musical identity. Das Kapitans mix punk with a lot of very 90s indie rock influences, whilst Dodge play a particularly ferocious brand of lo-fi hardcore. On this split, they’ve chosen to record each others’ material, leading to an experiment that captures both acts in a typically raw mood, but at the same time, adds something new to their world of noise.
DOT DASH – Madman In The Rain
Following a string of fairly jagged albums that pulled together punk, emo and mod influences, Dot Dash’s sound had a drastic overhaul on their 2018 LP ‘Proto Retro’. The rougher edges were smoothed out and in their place came some hugely melodic power pop. The bulk of the record’s tunes came with a 60s jangle as heard through a 90s filter, sometimes as if stumbling upon deep cuts from Teenage Fanclub; sometimes showing a massive love for Buffalo Tom. The musical changes were all for the better, since no matter where you dropped into the record, it was possible to hear something with huge hooks and a really positive feel.
AL PACINOS SISTER – Al Pacinos Sister EP
British punk band Al Pacinos Sister formed during the pandemic lockdown in 2021, but it wouldn’t be until the following year that they really exploded into life. Their ‘Trained In Karate’ and ‘DOGZ’ EPs (released in February and July of that year) marked their place as one of the UK’s noisiest underground bands. It almost immediately placed them alongside Pizzatramp and Socks On label mates Get The Fuck Out of Dodge – a role that the somewhat faceless act seemed to be taking very seriously.
DAS KAPITANS – Debut
For those who were paying attention to the UK indie rock/punk underground during those periods of pandemic lockdown during 2020 and ’21, the name Das Kapitans will be a familiar one. As the world slowly ground to a halt, the band went into recording overdrive by releasing twelve albums’ worth of material at a rate that would’ve made Guided By Voices man Robert Pollard seem lazy.
Their 2022 release ‘Debut’, then, isn’t a debut in the true sense; nor does it mean that the band consider their dozen lo-fi Bandcamp releases in anyway unofficial or unimportant. The title comes from the fact that it’s actually the first Das Kapitans disc to be recorded “properly”, with far more care – and with all of the band members present at all times. This gives the album an extra level of professionalism, but those who’ve already taken the time to explore the band’s rapidly assembled catalogue and fallen for its ragged and noisy charms needn’t worry about this being too polished. Yes, in many ways, the material sounds better, but it never really loses any of the band’s rough and ready spirit, and the expected big riffs are still at the forefront of the best material.