Listening to Southside Stranglers’s debut EP Too Much TV I feel like someone kicked their way into my house, took over my record player, drank a quart of whiskey, smashed in my bathroom mirror and fired handguns affectionately at my neighbors before passing out in a puddle of Lucky Charms and milk.

In roughly eight and a half minutes, the Richmond Virginia based band manages to dispel the reputation of Richmond’s scene being preoccupied with making and remaking 80’s hardcore. There are elements of punk, in the speed and shortness of songs (the longest are barely longer than a minute and a half), elements of garage rock with affected howl of vocalist Kenny (of Government Warning) that wavers between glam rock yowls, vigorous screams and actual singing, and elements of what is called “good old rock n roll” which always seems to mean not quite Grand Funk Railroad but not Minor Threat either.

This release kind of sits on the pivot point of bands like NoBunny or other acts associated with Jay Reatard versus the very “real punk” sounds of something like early Black Flag. There’s not as much romance as in something like Reigning Sound or even Richmond’s Cloak /Dagger, but there is just as much heart and soul here.

I must have listened to this thing 20 times and Saturday, at a party, I was cornering people and forcing them to listen to the mp3s that haven’t left my rotation.

This release is well worth your time and is available from Grave Mistake’s webstore for $4.50 in limited edition blue (200 pieces) or black . While you’re there, pick up the Cloak / Dagger “Don’t Need A” 7” released late last year.