Indonesian Junk “Living in a Nightmare” 2021. Spiderbite Records (their own label). Indonesian Junk released Living in a Nightmare digitally back in March but as we all know, vinyl is seriously backlogged so they just started shipping out the orders this week. Fortunately we live in the same neighborhood as lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Daniel James so we got ours pretty much right away. I love getting records from local bands. I knew immediately what record was inside (we order a lot of LP’s so a record box sitting on the porch is a common thing) from the return address: our same zip code and “Personality Crisis.”

I also really enjoy reading the “thank you’s” in local band’s liner notes because we usually know at least a few of the folks thanked, definitely frequent the venues and agree heartily with Indonesian Junk’s final sentiment about Shank Hall:

Living in a Nightmare is high-quality, high-energy 70′s punk-inspired scuzzy, snotty power pop. Or as they describe themselves “glam punk dirtbags from Milwaukee specialize in big ol’ catchy power pop hooks and big riffs,” a spot-on self-analysis so hardly a “personality crisis” going on there. It’s their fourth (I believe) studio LP and their first with new guitarist Adam Turetzky. We saw Turetzky’s first show with the band back in December 2019 (the last time we saw them play because obviously there weren’t shows for a long time though they’ve just started playing out again recently). The addition of the second guitar really beefs up their sound and provides extra excellent shredding solos.

My top tracks from Living in a Nightmare are “You Won’t See Me” (a massively-catchy power pop song; I was able to include this one soon after its release on a “414 Milwaukee Day” playlist that I used for a live-streamed class), the power rocker lead track “Type of a Girl” and the furious “Livin’ in the USA.”