Diarrhea Planet
Loose Jewels
Infinity Cat Recordings

With a band name and album cover possibly invented by someone’s seven-year-old nephew, Diarrhea Planet spew forth an album’s worth of Gamblers’ style garage pop as unpredictable and juvenile as their shitty moniker. Driven by a harmonic cacophony of quadruple guitars and tree-fort song titles, this Nashville band riffs on the Southern skate punk sound in equal parts brevity and bravado; the catchy choruses say, ‘Take our songwriting seriously,’ while the lo-fi nonsense says, ‘We’ll place a flaming bag of dog shit on your front step, ring the bell, and take off.’ There is more to Loose Jewels than meets destroys the eye, though, and that’s the slight whiff of leather jacket sleaze that runs down this album’s proverbial leg, which, noted for both its stink and speed, is over and ringing in your ears before the mess even reaches your shoe.

Listen to “Warm Ridin’” from Loose Jewels!

Riverboat Gamblers
Smash/Grab EP
Paper + Plastick

I’ve written about more Texas punk bands this year than I ever thought I would, really, so if I’m going to do it again, I might as well take on the granddaddy of ‘em all, the Riverboat Gamblers, whose new four-song EP, Smash/Grab, is near eight minutes of pure soil n’ snot pop that only they can deliver. In fact, what it really delivers is that old school Gamblers sound we haven’t heard since 2003′s Something to Crow About, that raw, loose, up-tempo ribaldry and shout-along savagery, which ought to wash away any uneasy feelings you may have had toward the commercial leanings of 2009′s Underneath the Owl. Each of the songs here (“The Ol’ Smash and Grab,” “Parasite Friend,” “Maggie Lea,” “Anything But You”) ooze with the manic energy these mavericks have been known to consistently unleash on stage, which means there’s no bells, no whistles, and no slick production. Just sweaty, ageless, gutsy rock n’ roll inspired by — and inspiring — youthful indiscretion one petty crime at a time.

Listen to “Anything But You” from the Smash/Grab EP!

High Tension Wires
Welcome New Machine
Dirtnap Records

Third album from Texas “supergroup” High Tension Wires, led by Riverboat Gamblers’ Mike Wiebe on vocals and Marked Men/Mind Spiders’ Mark Ryan on guitar/vocals (and rounded out by The Reds’ Chris Pulliam and newcomers Daniel Fried and Greg Rutherford of The Bad Sports), and that’s probably all I need to say because I know you’re already hearing the twitchy, over-amped punk rock  in your head. Like the music associated with any one of the bands involved in this project, Welcome New Machine is full of catchy, fuzzy songs that playfully mix ’77 snark and Berry blues, and the whole thing will leave you reeling like you’ve been beaten with broken skateboard decks by a bunch of frazzled dudes in sweaty cardigans and black-rimmed glasses. It’s all over in about 26 minutes though, and while each of the 12 songs here last as long as bubblegum flavour, they’ve got exceptional melodic stamina, and the electric effects of “Get Weird,” “Incorporeal,” “Backbone,” “Temporary Gods,” “Lose Face,” and “Handicapped Hearts” will stay in your legs for a long time. Live shows are extremely rare with this bunch, so if you want in on some High Tension Wires action, grab a Welcome New Machine LP before they’re all gone.

Listen to “Backbone” from Welcome New Machine!