Review / 200 Words Or Less
Puppy and the Hand Jobs
I Hate Everything

Black Gladiator / Slovenly Recordings (2019) Andy Armageddon

Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything cover artwork
Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything — Black Gladiator / Slovenly Recordings, 2019

It'd be quite easy to write off (the fantastically named) Puppy and the Hand Jobs for making self-described “trash rock and roll.” Much as is the case with bands like The Dwarves however, while the band does produce vulgar rapid-fire punk music that seems to have been recorded as “hot” as possible, there’s an undeniably catchiness to their music. 2019’s I Hate Everything demonstrates this quite nicely.

Certainly tracks like “Cocksucker” and “Predator” would have some clutching their pearls (hell, the former track has a music video released through, gulp, Pornhub, and no, I'm not linking it), but midway through this 10-minute EP, the band uncorks “Plan 9” and shows that they can, in fact, deliver genuinely infectious tracks that aren’t overtly offensive. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this: frontman Jamie Paul Lamb had some of his previous work featured on the excellent We’re Loud compilation a few years back. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call I Hate Everything a masterpiece, but it also isn’t remotely trying to be. It’s simply an energetic and fun album for those with, ahem, refined tastes.

Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything cover artwork
Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything — Black Gladiator / Slovenly Recordings, 2019

Recently-posted album reviews

Sahan Jayasuriya

Don’t Say Please: The Oral History of Die Kreuzen
Feral House (2026)

For those of us who spent the mid-to-late 1980s navigating basement community halls, churches, and loveable, armpit-smelling dive bars, the name Die Kreuzen was a permanent fixture on the punk rock radar. They were the sound of the Midwest underground --too fast for the goths to do their spooky Bela Lugosi "shoo the bats away" interpretive dance, too technical for … Read more

Sewer Urchin

Global Urination
Independent (2025)

There’s a fine line between crossover thrash that feels dangerous and crossover thrash that just feels like a party. Global Urination doesn’t bother choosing because it does both loudly and without apology. St. Louis’ Sewer Urchin have been grinding since 2019, and on their latest full length they double down on everything that makes the genre work. They give us … Read more

Ingested

Denigration
Metal Blade (2026)

For a band that built its name on sheer brutality, Ingested have spent the last several years refining what that brutality actually means. With their newest release, Denigration, the band finds that continuing evolution. They’re still punishing, still precise, but noticeably more controlled and deliberate in how it all lands. From the outset, the record makes its intentions clear. “Dragged … Read more