by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Sometimes your next favorite band could be lurking around the corner. Maybe in Australia. Maybe in Berlin. Wherever they may be, it’s always important to keep yours ear open and try something new, name recognition be damned. Which brings us to Dead Finks, a duo originally formed in Australia and recently relocated to Berlin. The worldly travelers, Erin Violet and Joseph Thomas (formerly of Trust Punks), will release their debut album, Dead Fink Era, via Urge Records (The Rebel, Lost System) on March 20th, a transfixed post-punk record that drifts between haunted and romantic synth heavy influences and harsher punk songs with equal grace and fury. It’s all tied together by a wash of homemade noise and distortion that rolls in like the fog.
“Bitter Pill,” the album’s lead single, most definitely draws from the punk side of their sound, a song that slowly creeps in following a sustained introduction and then quickly shakes and convulses until the wheels come off. The tones are filthy in a brilliant way, scraping like sandpaper against sandpaper, everything warped and bent over the steady flood of synth destruction. Borrowing elements of garage punk, hardcore, and krautrock, Dead Finks sound determined and focused, digging their raw and abrasive approach into hypnotic territory and shouting all the while. It’s a great introduction to a very promising new band.