Sgt. Papers

Following a pair of self-released gems and 2021’s SGTP on Devil in the Woods, Hermosillo, Mexico’s Sgt. Papers return with their debut for In The Red. Splashed with psych, soaked in fuzz, but rooted in a propulsive, pungent punk, the duo drags the listener through dented dirges and tar pit toasters. The record rummages around in a post-apocalyptic vision of punk — decimated, deconstructed, and built back from memory. Wafts of Devo and The Units grind underneath the band’s punk assemblages. Geza X and The Screamers are hot glued to the front. Hung with tatters of guitar and thrumming on coil-spring propulsion and seething keys, the band’s sound is ravaged but never wrecked. It’s been a while since someone took up the wild-eyed wheel and steered it through the speakers but Sgt. Papers seem comfortable at the controls.

There’s always going to be something alluring in the lasciviousness of punk, but the best examples over the past few years have had a bit of decay to them. Put Sgt Papers in the pot with Ausmuteants, Alien Nosejob, Smarts, and Hierophants, the Aussie contingent that’s already riding the outlander strains, already on the beach and ready for the world to crumble. The Garcia brothers are on a different coast, but carving out the same crumble as their Aussie counterparts. This one’s slipped through a few cracks this year (even around here) but it’s time to let the band’s itch embrace the last vestiges of 2024. In a year that seemed to constantly spin the populace, blindfolded and bourbon drunk, there might be no better approximation of our own daily disorientation than Fuga!