The Rise of Second-Wave Egg Punk

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Thomas Haug isn’t worked up about the term, but he is a bit tired of it. Which is understandable—from his home in Germany, he has been running one of the planet’s best egg-friendly punk labels, Erste Theke Tontraeger, since 2011. (He put out the Coneheads’ first LP—a compilation of two self-released cassettes—in early 2015.) Haug believes the current egg punk explosion can be partly traced back to COVID-19 pandemic isolation, when burgeoning punks had time to explore DIY music and try recording it alone in their homes.

“That’s one thing I think is interesting about egg punk—you can do it all yourself with electronic drums and stuff,” he said. “I think it was a good year for records, but I’m just a little tired of the use of this [term] because it’s just, like, good new punk music. Call it whatever you want. As long as the music is good, I’m happy with it.”

A list of great egg punk albums released in 2023 is subject to anyone’s definition of the term, of course, but Erste Theke Tontraeger is an excellent place to start exploring. Last year, Haug released a four-song EP from Spanish synth weirdos Prison Affair; a compilation of the first four demos from Olympia, Washington synth punk blazers the Gobs; and Drift, the debut from Checkpoint, a supergroup from the wildly fertile punk scene in Australia.

The Checkpoint album is a favorite of the mononymous musician known as Billiam, himself one of the bright young lights on the Melbourne scene. Billiam released his fine first LP of buzzy, propulsive egg punk, Corner Tactics, in September. Just 21 years old, he is deferential in his assessment of why his home country is such a productive incubator for this style of music.

A day’s drive up the road from Melbourne is Australia’s other egg punk breeding ground, Sydney, where you’ll find a trio of powerhouses in Buz Clatworthy’s tightly wound R.M.F.C., Ishka Edmeades’ radiantly poppy Tee Vee Repairmann, and Kel Mason’s famously rowdy Gee Tee, whose Goodnight Neanderthal, released via American punk institution Goner Records, might just be last year’s catchiest egg punk album. (Edmeades, for the record, is probably the busiest man in the genre, recording often weird and always catchy songs under the names Research Reactor Corp., Satanic Togas, Set-Top Box, and Remote Control, in addition to Tee Vee Repairman.)

Meanwhile, back in America, egg punk has spread far beyond its Midwestern roots. Last year alone, the genre turned out great releases from Cherry Cheeks (originally from Florida, now in Portland), Ismatic Guru (Buffalo, New York), Spllit (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Clarko (Reno, Nevada), Silicone Prairie (Kansas City), Stuck (Chicago), and the aforementioned Erik Nervous and Sn​õ​õ​per, to name a handful.

“It’s been a fucking fantastic year,” Billiam said, “for this kind of whatever genre you want to call it.”

Connor Cummins, who plays guitar in Sn​õ​õ​per and also records under the name Spodee Boy, doesn’t really want to call it “egg punk” anymore. But along with Nervous and Haug and Billiam, he understands how genre terms can help people find music they love and connect with other people who love the music they love.

“You can’t really call it ‘garage rock.’ You can’t really call it ‘hardcore.’ You can’t really call it ‘power pop.’ It’s kind of its own thing, which I understand for classification,” Cummins said. “It makes sense, but I don’t love the name. I do, however, notice there are a lot of younger kids who are starting bands who really embrace the term, and I think they get a sense of community out of it, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”

Indeed, it was exactly that sense of community that initially drew his Sn​õ​õ​per co-founder, Tramel, to egg punk.

“Connor came from a real punk background, where I was, like, the person at punk shows that didn’t look punk and didn’t dress punk, and I would always get shit for that,” she said. “And then I went to an egg punk show, and everyone was dancing and happy and having fun, and I was like, ‘Oh, here’s something for me.’”