The Famines

The Wolfnote's 2006 break-up sucked. Featuring the band's former drummer, Gareth Heath Kruger, and ex-Vertical Struts guitarist and vocalist Raymond E. Biesinger, the Famines are a different beast but clearly one cut from the same aggressive, avant-punk cloth. These two seven-inches, packaged gorgeously, contain four unrelentingly noisy blasts of '70s punk couched in the unstructured sonic pile-up of Kruger's former band. "I Like Some of the Things You Do" kicks off side A with a riff that's equally catchy and grotesque, melding the rudimentary punk rock of the Dead Boys with something much more primal and kind of Canadian. There's a cool bleakness to each of these songs that couldn't come from anywhere else but Edmonton. Plus, the accompanying artwork, including a "Visual History of the Famines" booklet, is worth the price of the vinyl alone.