Our last check in with Windian Records examined two swell reissues from the increasingly reliable wellspring of punk-garage-trash. It’s an enterprise just as concerned over the happening nonce as vital history however, and recently its roster has been fortified with a pair of worthy and diverse new releases; Jacques Le Coque deliver raw infectiousness through the “Tip of My Tongue” b/w “You Better Move” 45 while Black Panties cram four slabs of prime ugliness into the highly potent “Future EP.” Available now, both are solid acquisitions for anyone maintaining a home shelf of contemporary punkish gusto.
Jacques Le Coque formed in Stamford, CT (their place of origin also the hometown of Killed by Death notables Tapeworm of “Break My Face” non-fame) and are currently composed of Pete Mazza on guitar and vocals, Jason Kyek on drums, RJ DeAngelis on guitar, and Francis Carr (also of Moth Eggs, Thee Goochi Boiz, and formerly of The Happy Jawbone Family Band) on bass.
Making their debut in late 2012 on a self-titled CD featuring a dozen tracks, Jacques Le Coque specialize in melodic punk classique, reaching back to nab elements of beat rock, garage, Thunders’ Heartbreakers, early Saints, and even the Replacements into a catchy and tough scenario. Easily sticking in the memory, the band flaunts a streak of rudeness effectively fending off any confusion as to where to file the results.
The picture sleeve of Jacques Le Coque’s latest platter (to say nothing of the name) surely aids in underlining a level of snot in their attack, and in a nifty bonus the 7-inch’s purchase provides digital access to their sophomore effort from earlier this year. A tunefully ragged improvement on its predecessor, the 12-song Hooky helped to cement the four-piece as inhabiting the busy crossroads of sturdy tunes and raucous energy with a few nods into the direction of ‘60s-ish folk rock thrown in.
But thrifty folks shouldn’t contemplate sidestepping their new 45 for Hooky’s expansive contents; that would be a duff maneuver frankly, for the ditties Windian has snagged offer Jacques Le Coque at the top of their game. A-side “Tip of My Tongue” is uptempo punk counterbalancing the catchiness with needling string work and subtly integrating a thread of garage precedent, some swell ’77-ish leads and a sly false ending into the equation.
More energetic than pissed, flipside “You Better Move” only intensifies this circumstance, blending in unabashed power pop gestures and more overt ‘60s melodicism through low-mixed vocal harmony and a splendid guitar solo. Destined to satisfy jangle poppers with an underlying itch for the Ramones, it completes a concise but fully-formed outing.
Contrasting sharply with Jacques Le Coque’s uplifting state of affairs is Black Panties, the nom de disque of a severely unhappy fellow hailing from some dank cranny of St. Louis, MO. Sporting connections to the city’s Lumpy and the Dumpers, he’s hacked up a wad of digital, cassette and 7-inch material, a portion of it on the Lumpy Records/Spotted Race imprint.
Circa 2012 Black Panties was about as abrasively misanthropic as one guy overdubbing via 4-track while wearing a gimp mask and a black leather jacket would suggest; mauling spitefulness defines a batch of originals and a difficult to recognize but revealing cover of Freestone’s “Bummer Bitch,” though underneath the dyspeptic murk is something resembling structure.
The digital cut “No Manners” dates from the following year and offers a slightly more graspable songic environment amid the homemade mayhem as 2014’s one-sided 3-song 7-inch flexi on Lumpy continued a move toward tangibly punk-pegged negativity that’s even tinged with fleeting bits of humor (specifically “Caught Posing”); at times the mess resembled spastic lo-fi hardcore as the flexi signaled a considerable rise in output.
To elaborate, Windian’s “Future EP” is Black Panties third 7-inch of 2015 following “Prophet of Hate” on Total Punk and a self-titled item on Lumpy that appears to belch out some of the ’12 stuff onto black wax. Tightly packed with four songs and replacing the simplistically effective black and white cover drawings of numerous prior releases with the eclectic art design of Mac Blackout, newbies to Black Panties can begin right here and proceed backward if the spirit so moves them.
Opener “The Future” (“it gets worse, it only gets worse”) highlights proficiency lingering nearer to drum-box punk than anything these ears have previously heard from Mr. Panties, though that shouldn’t imply Metal Urbain or Big Black, sounding instead like the handiwork of a sweaty incensed urchin with a twitchy left eyelid and an ominous bulge in his overly tight blue jeans.
“You’ll Never Find My Body” is corrosive throttle spat forth at a breakneck mosh pit-inspiring clip lasting for just over a minute and with an abbreviated blip of a guitar spasm (to call it a solo feels inaccurate) lending flavor. Along the way the voice rants so fervently that it’s difficult to not imagine getting engulfed in an aromatic cloud-mist of hot spittle.
The lengthier grind of “Nothing Left” is adorned with bountiful amp splatter, incessant pound and raw throated abandon, and the pace shifting near the end reinforces the abovementioned honing of musicality, a substantial progression from the loose aggressiveness of Black Panties’ initial outbursts. Closer “Born into Shit” weds claustrophobia-inducing bleakness to gnarled art-punk density and an abrupt end, the overall cohesiveness far from reducing this one man gang’s discomfiting aura.
To summarize, Windian has pressed up a duo of wide-ranging winners, Jacques Le Coque exemplifying robust melody as Black Panties outline convulsive desolation. One’s a probable party enhancer while the other’s a strategic buzz killer; like the man said, everyone has their reasons.
JACQUES Le COQUE:
A-
BLACK PANTIES:
A-
