Radioactivity have announced their first of two albums on Dirtnap Records! Radioactivity is a continuation of The Novice, Jeff Burke's band while living in Japan. Jeff has since moved back to Texas, and out of respect to the Japanese lineup of the band, has changed the name to Radioactivity. Some of these songs are re-purposed Novice tracks, while others are brand new. Jeff is one of the most distinctive songwriters in the punk rock underground, and these songs will sound instantly familiar to any fans of The Marked Men or Potential Johns. Band members include Jeff Burke, Mark Ryan, and Gregory Rutherford, whose credits read like an all-star lineup of Texas punk and garage rock royalty, including members of The Marked Men, Mind Spiders, Bad Sports, Wax Museums, The Reds, VIDEO, and The Novice. Radioactivity's first, self-titled LP is due out on Dirtnap Records in October, and it will coincide with a Radioactivity 7" released on Germany's Alien Snatch! Records.The album will be promoted by an October/November European tour supported by Japan's Suspicious Beasts. Look for ANOTHER Radioactivity LP coming soon on Dirtnap!

Texas trio Bad Sports release their fourth full-length to Dirtnap and with it, push their sound into a more modern sphere of punk. Orville Neeley (guitars / vocals), Daniel Fried (bass / vocals) and Gregory Rutherford (drums) have spent over ten years together and the progression is justified.

This time, the production quality is more lean and tense, giving an air that is decidedly frustrated, more world-weary. And not to say that this isn’t an enjoyable listen – it’s just not the kind of record to pogo in a pit and shotgun a beer to. Bad Sports has grown in substance.There’s a balance to keeping enough of the old and forging ahead with the new to remain relevant and compelling.

Fans will find much to get enthusiastic over and feel invigorated about as Bad Sports is still great at simply being a stripped-down classic-leaning punk band with deep power-pop vs. proto-punk feelings. Make no mistake, though: Bad Sports are not a “retro” band. Constant Stimulation is simply a timeless-yet-modern masterpiece, that sounds like it could have come out of just about any era of rock, but is also as NOW as anything else currently out there.

Their history with its Texas peers of the same ilk paired along with their time spent in projects like OBN III’s, Radioactivity, Wax Museums and VIDEO (among others), has served Bad Sports well. They’ve honed themselves into being a complicated and calculating rock machine instead of just a talented party band, dishing out fuzzed-out fury, chugging chords and yelled vocals. Now, there’s a little more finesse and more care taken to let Neeley’s words and voice ring out; as close to sing-singing the band has come on a record.

There’s a general nimble brightness to the production, throughout. Gone are the days of fuzz and total distortion making the songs into jumping fleas from one track to the next. Adding a little pacing and extending their palette – the lazy chug in “Everything We Wanted” is fed by ample tremolo and loiters in its own 90s slacker rock vibe while “Ode to Power” and “Constant Stimulation” could be intertwined among the tracklists of the newest Rolling Blackouts C.F. or Shame records – equalizes things a bit because the main chunk of this record is straight-up punk, fed on busted pieces of guitar strings and broken drumsticks. It’s lean and tough.

2012’s King of the Weekend and 2013’s Bras was love (and lackthereof)-focused, covered in equal parts, sweat, lipstick, beer, grime and glitter. Granted, there are little flashes of heartbreak thrown in on Constant Stimulation, but not quite like before. This record moreso broils and stews over a response to the modern world and its eroding and addling effects, kicking its lyrics out to be heard clearly. No track exemplifies this better than the title track on which Neeley sings, “I need constant stimulation in my ears and in my eyes or I don’t sleep at night…deprivation chambers only worsen my dreams.” Maybe this more spaciously spare sound is their response to that veritable constant stimulation. Welcome to the modern age.

When the Carbonas died, Atlanta wept. Mothers and children, left orphaned by the deceased, wandered the streets with tears streaming mottled faces. Strong and silent men struggled to maintain composure, and they retreated to basement workbenches, biting lips, cracking knuckles, running hands through thinning hair, sullenly wondering: "Why?" Skies darkened. A palpable feeling of devastating loss plagued the city. Nay, the world.

Thankfully, ex-frontman Greg "GG" King wasted little time in yanking up his knickers and pursuing new noise. He wrote a series of tunes not unlike those he contributed to the Carbonas – that winning mix of hyperstrummed '70s Europunk and brawny stateside r'n'r pummel intact – and amassed a crew of friends and former bandmates to help him flesh out the din. He released a handful of solid teaser singles, played a number of good shows. He reasserted himself as one of Atlanta's greatest exports.

And now, with the release of Esoteric Lore, his first full-length longplayer, the venerable GG King moves beyond his old guard, skindiving in new sinkholes.

Yes, herein we find some highly Carbonic moments – traces of Hubble Bubble, The Kids, Zero Boys, et. al. – but we also hear the King & Co. vamp on vibes harnessed only previously by goth-punk forebears: early Christian Death, 45 Grave. We sense smudged traces of minimal mania a la 100 Flowers. We catch whiffs of the emblematic hardcore of the Germs & T.S.O.L., feel the plod 'n' thud of Negative Trend. We're treated to bits of hijacked shortwave, aural static clinging 'tween songs proper, bleeding into the tunes themselves. And we hear a walloping wayward punk rec that nods knowingly toward L.A.-circa-'82, but in melding its influences, somehow sounds distinctly Atlanta, and right now.

You would think that because only about 60 miles separate the cities of Athens and Atlanta, Georgia that maybe the same sphere of influence would affect both. In the past decade, Atlanta has seen the growth of a creatively sustainable music scene, and we sort of forgot about our neighbors up the road. There is no shortage of great bars, restaurants and clubs in Athens, but it's been a little while since an Athens band made me want to jump in my car and make the trip. Vincas have given me that much needed excuse. Blood Bleeds is a monster of a record. They are playing dark and heavy songs that at once will draw Birthday Party and Gun Club comparisons. I'd bet they have some later Scientists records in their collections too as there is a discernible element of swampishness weaving itself throughout the record. It's sexy in a super-bitter dark chocolate kind of way and has a pounding cohesiveness throughout. Vincas demonstrate total control from start to finish, and it's pretty clear that they didn't just stumble onto a style of music like this. We truly hope the folks over in Athens realize what they've got on their hands.