If there is one thing about New Mexico that I miss, it is the breakfast burritos from the Santa Fe Grill located in those Pic-Quic gas stations.

Actually I am lying.  I miss living down the street from the Dirt Cult Records headquarters.  Chris was a rad dude and I am glad I got to know him even if just for a brief moment.  His band, Low Culture, remains one of my favorites to this day.

Recently, I learned that Dirt Cult relocated to Portland, Oregon and I thought I would check in with Chris to see how things were going with the big move.  He advised everything was going smooth and shared a few new releases his label is putting out in the upcoming months.

I thought I would do a quick review on all of them them.  Enjoy!

Autonomy/No Sir I Won’t – Split

I blame Chris for getting me into Autonomy before I even became pals with him.  This split is pretty bad ass crust-ish punk act that to me sound way better than Crass.  I loved the samples throughout.  Autonomy’s “Ashes To Ashes” was a pretty kick ass song that just started almost psycho-garagy and turned fizzled out with a Cure-sounding bass riff.  No Sir I Won’t were cool to check out and full of aggressive punk rock that reached into the 80s style I grew up loving.  Definitely will be checking them out some more.  

Apocalypse Meow! – Baseball and Alcohol 7″

Featuring Off With Their Heads’s Justin Francis as well as members of Sundowners, I knew I was going to adore this 7″ before I even listened to it.  With songs relevant to the 7″‘s title, Apocalypse Meow take two of America’s favorite past times and mix them into pure pop-punk goodness.  The track “MVP” ruled with the lyrics “all I want to be is a goddamn MVP” repeating throughout.   The title track though is what did it for me.  Loved it.

Blank Pages – Blank Pages LP

Straight outta Berlin, Blank Pages proves to have one hell of a release with some serious garage rock layered with a old school punk rock feel.  These guys really remind me of the Marked Men in a good good way.  Great song writing added with vocals that could easily fit in with the 70s/80s punk scene.  “We’re All Broken” was just amazing with almost a surf-punk sound in the middle.  I was beyond impressed with the clean sound throughout the release and just full on togetherness of the band.  It just works so well.  “All In Due Time” was another great track.  I am really glad Chris threw Blank Pages my way, I am totally loving what they do.  If you call yourself a fan bands like the Ramones and the Dickies, I have the feeling you will like what Blank Pages have to offer  Ich bin ein Fan von Leerseiten.

For more info on Dirt Cult releases or to check out some other amazing release on the Dirt Cult label, head on over to http://dirtcultrecords.bandcamp.com.