Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. In less than a year, Amherst trio CALIFORNIA X have emerged from basements and punk practice spaces of Massachusetts as one of the tightest new garage punk bands in the Northeast, teetering between various pockets of the punk spectrum—drawing influence from the worlds of noisy ‘80s Western Mass rock, fuzzy ‘90s garage pop, and classic post-hardcore SST sounds.

Fronted by main songwriter LEMMY GURTOWSKY, their debut LP for Don Giovanni follows one prior release, a double A-side single “Sucker” b/w “Mummy” out via the UK’s Sound of Sweet Nothing label. From start to finish, the record’s eight hook-heavy tracks of melodic guitar punk could all be singles: the noisy vox and huge grungy riffs on “Curse of the Nightmare”; the slower-burning head-banging pulse of “Pond Rot”; the shoegaze-inflicted fleshed-out melodies of “Lemmy’s World.” Songs like “Hot Hed” feels so essential you’ll wonder how they’re not actually from
some long-lost punk tapes of the 1980s Western Mass.

Appropriately, the band recorded the album in MA with JUSTIN PIZZOFERRATO, previously a collaborator with Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.—and though California X sound like they could have been contemporaries with those bands, they’re also carving out their own space in a lineage of their hometown’s punk history. NME have touted this as one of the “biggies” of the year…turn it up!!!