• Завірюга ‘xxx’

    Just when eggy lo-fi threatens to clog up the weirder corners of Bandcamp and threaten the contentiously termed ‘eggpunk’ with an association of tiresome derivatives, in comes Ukrainian Завірюга with a new EP so hooky and flavoursome you’re reminded of why the genre was so exciting in the first place. Following from last year’s more caustic and…

  • Uranium Club ‘Infants Under The Bulb’

    There’s always been a subtly ambitious reach behind Uranium Club’s scrappy midwestern-style punk. Across their seven-year output, a janky garage belies their effortlessly virtuoso musician chops and the tight, elastic interplay between members Brendan Wells, Harry Wohl, Ian Stemper, and Matt Stagner, all forming the band in Minneapolis in 2013. Allegedly orchestrating the impressive cover…

  • The Gobs

    Well, past EP covers had aliens urinating on planet Earth, sawing a hapless human in half, sucking brains with a straw, and playing Cupid with penis arrows. Now dining on a severed head served on a platter, The Gobs‘ smirking, extra-terrestrial sadists seem to outdo themselves on cartoon gore and snotty irreverence with every release. Dreamed…

  • Album cover of 'Mondo Maleficum'

    Erotic Secrets of Pompeii ‘Mondo Maleficum’

    A phrenology bust. Orthodox Christian icons. Fat Man’s nuclear destruction over Nagasaki. The trinkets and relics that adorn the cover of Erotic Secrets of Pompeii‘s debut LP Mondo Maleficum are just some of the many artefacts in the band’s cabinet of curiosities, a trove of disparate musical hues, mythological esoterica and an obsession with the end times all…

  • Heads on Sticks 2023

    Here’s to the artists that scored my 2023! As ever, the round-ups are never a ‘best of’, nor an exclusive collection of all that’s been on heavy roation at HEADHQ but more a lovingly curated mixtape or compilation, a curated playlist crafted for coherence and journey in mind. Many thanks to tall the artists included,…

  • Erik Nervous ‘Immaturity’

    “I don’t think I’m particularly mature for my age, I still live at home with my family, I eat fast food and drink soda, I don’t really have an actual job” quipped Erik Nervous when musing the thematic guidance of his latest LP. Arrested development and shirking responsibility seem to have served Nervous well. Prolifically pumping out…