LITHICS is a four person minimalist punk band from Portland, Oregon formed in late 2014. Over the last year and a half they have refined a sound focusing on interlocked bass and drum rhythms paired with shrill guitar counterpoint and stark female vocals. While counting Wire, The Fall, Devo, Pylon, The Shadow Ring, and Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band as reference points, the band’s concerns are contemporary and urgent. An injection of uptight, nervous energy into the reverb drenched complacency of today’s musical underground.
THE WORLD are five people from Oakland, California who write rambunctious dance music with a post punk tool kit and an insightful yet short attention span. Their songs typically clock in around two minutes long and are a wild head-rush of Amber Sermeno's funk-minded bass lines and shuddering dubbed-out guitar courtesy of Andy Jordan. Amber also sings alongside Elyse Schrock, who anchors their propulsive songs with some supremely robust drumming. The steady beat is bolstered by Stanley Martinez's flurrying saxophone melodies and Alexa Pantalone's expansive bongo rhythms. Alexa also plays sax on half of the songs too, contributing further to the complex interplay of instruments that make The World's music so immediate, compelling and groove conscious.
Everything you could possibly want in punk music. If not, interrogate the integrity of your desires. NEON is a four-piece medium translating the universal howling female shitstorm alive and kicking within us all. Do you seek adventure? Justification for further recorded sound from a guitar? For those bored to tears by predictable rock'n'roll formula and pseudo-punk box-ticking, predictable posturing, NEON is a psychedelic diamond in the barren toxic rough. Yes, Virginia, there really are freaks still residing in a California. 100% proof adult women must escalate the full takeover of all aspects of punk everything. Neon will make you radiant and happy, probably more desirable.”