***Opening with the distorted chant “Erase America!” over angle-grinder guitar, Ravi Shavi dispense with any subtlety and deliver their most caustic and combative work yet, their fifth release on arbiter of outsider punk Almost Ready Records. Frontman and brainchild Rafay Rashid has long possessed an ability to channel the canonical saints of underground rock; if past releases found him scaling a Punk Rushmore of Ziggy, Iggy, and Lou, Erase America burns a votive candle for the profane soul of Mark E. Smith. Songs like “Intifada”, “US Rat”, and “Miracle Bombs” fuse the paranoid catharsis of post-punk and no wave with the avant-noise nihilism of the band’s Providence, R.I. home base. The resulting speedball might be the first record to fully look the fetid corpse of post-empire America eye to eye. “The motherland of killing another man” indeed.
LP $22.25
05/22/2026
***RAVI SHAVI is the sound of garage pop: a concoction of classic punk, modern indie, and new wave, with a shot of rock n' roll. After gaining momentum in the United States through DIY touring and supporting larger indie acts the past few years, Ravi Shavi is releasing its latest opus, Blackout Deluxe, on Brooklyn label Almost Ready Records. Produced by JESSE MCFADDEN, who also produced the band’s self-titled album, and featuring a dozen tracks, the record expands upon that garage-pop, at turns being both catchy as hell and virolently raucous. With Blackout Deluxe, the band has continued to make strides and carve out a scene for brown people making music in post 9/11 America.
LP $16.35
02/01/2019