South Filthy, Manikin, Yuppie Pricks, Single Frame, and I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness

For six long and lonely winter months, it seemed as though only Manikin's dark garage drone kept the torch of local 45s aloft. Satellite to this summer's sophomore LP, the blue vinyl duress of M.4 (Super Secret) harnesses the Austin punk trio's Beerland mojo in four kinetic jolts of top-down hearse rock, including Joy Division's "Shadowplay." Four more provocations are paid in yellow vinyl on the Yuppie Pricks' Stock Market, from another scrappy local imprint, Chicken Ranch Records. The hacksaw riffs of the Chumps' "Fuck You, I'm Rich" and the Motards' "Paycheck" snort lines with the Pricks' Wall Street panic and live recoil "Donkey Show." Scenemates Single Frame need 12 inches of black vinyl for a trio of jittery synth shout-outs from the local threesome's new Body/End/Basement LP. Doubled by remixes, The Vinyl Disaster Mixes (Volcom) quakes the skank floor with its "Floral Design" remix and the Creepy Kid stretch of "Digital Witness." No one-night stands to ecstatic groove are Austin's retro ravers I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness, whose Artikal 12-inch fires up two new basslines ("According to Plan" and "Thoughts on the Floor") that make the band's hypnotic neon debut EP sound downright dance-impaired by comparison. Another hit please. Christened by the majorly cool cover art of Winston Smith, South Filthy's Crackin' Up – on Italy's Rockin' Bones – matches 12 vinyl inches with 12 chicken scratches from River City harpcat Walter Daniels' trailer park blues society. It opens on the Hickoids' "Brand New Way of Living" ("Drink Budweiser every day, show the girls our peckers"), segueing into Tom T. Hall's "I Like Beer," then feeds off the rib meat of Daniels' standbys Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley (the Earl Poole Ball piano ambling title track), and wistfully hobbled banjo closer, Ian Hunter's "Original Mixed-Up Kid." That's Eugene Chadbourne on LP standout "Flaming Star." Cracklin'.

www.supersecretrecords.com; www.chickenranchrecords.com; www.volcoment.com; www.artikalrecords.com; www.rockinbones.it