LEMONGRAB

Berlin based garage punk outfit Lemongrab return with their new EP, ‘Another Kind of Freedom‘, set for release on September 11th, 2026 via Mothland and Chrüsimüsi Records.
Across four tracks and just under thirteen minutes, the band deliver a restless collection that moves between garage punk, post punk, krautrock and even country punk, while keeping their raw DIY character firmly at its core.
Rather than presenting four variations on the same idea, ‘Another Kind of Freedom‘ allows each song to develop its own personality.
The result is deliberately eclectic, sometimes abrasive, sometimes playful, but held together by the band’s lo-fi aesthetics, political awareness and taste for irony.
Existential frustration sits alongside sharp social commentary, while the music shifts freely between angular grooves, distorted guitars and unexpected stylistic turns.
The EP opens its arguments with ‘Pay to Play‘, taking aim at an industry that depends on musicians while often failing to provide them with anything resembling a sustainable income.
The krautrock flavoured ‘Necessary Condition‘ turns its attention towards the distractions people embrace while the world around them appears increasingly unstable.
Elsewhere, ‘No Receipt‘ throws country punk into the mix, approaching the difficulties of romantic relationships with characteristic sarcasm while questioning whether conventional ideas of coupledom might themselves be another product of capitalist thinking.
One of the EP’s most distinctive moments comes with ‘Yoko‘, which was released as a video single on August 13th.
Driven by a sharp bass riff, tightly controlled drums and restless guitar work, the track combines mutant disco energy with late seventies post punk influences, particularly bands such as Delta 5 and Au Pairs.
Behind its infectious groove lies a pointed examination of the male gaze and of who gets to control cultural narratives.
The song takes inspiration from the continued hostility directed towards Yoko Ono and the persistent claim that she was responsible for the collapse of The Beatles, challenging the habit of reducing her role as an artist and activist to somebody else’s story.
Core members Gaëlle and Léonie explain:
“Yoko came from a discussion about how we repeatedly had this annoying conversation with men who hate Yoko Ono and say she’s just ruining everything, laughing about her ‘screaming’ over Chuck Berry. Yoko is a song that decenters the male ego as the measure of experience and plays with the notion of who holds the narrative. It’s not anymore about if someone is Paul or John, but Yoko or John, putting them both on equal terms.”
The accompanying video follows two friends setting out to visit the grave of German singer, songwriter, actress and model Nico, Christa Päffgen, adding another layer to a song already concerned with women whose artistic identities have frequently been filtered through the men surrounding them.
Musically, ‘Another Kind of Freedom‘ also represents something of a return to Lemongrab’s rougher roots.
Compared with their previous album, ‘I Spy with My Little Eye‘, the new material deliberately strips away some of the polish while retaining greater control over the sounds the band wanted to explore.
“’Another Kind of Freedom’ is a small collection of four songs that each explore a slightly different pearl from the same necklace,”
Gaëlle and Léonie say.
“The EP is less polished than our previous LP, ‘I Spy with My Little Eye’. It’s a return to our lo-fi sound, but it’s a little more controlled in the exploration of sounds we sought after. It’s ironic, existential punk.”
The EP was recorded and mixed by Leo Marchand at Of Bits & Pieces in Leipzig, where the band deliberately took time to experiment rather than simply capture the songs and move on.
Strange overdubs, scratchy vocal treatments and different guitar textures became part of the process, with the limited four song format giving each track enough room to follow its own stylistic direction.
That patchwork approach extends to the artwork.
Created by the band from drawings, scraps and assorted material collected over the years, its handmade appearance reflects both the contrasting nature of the songs and Lemongrab’s DIY philosophy.
Even an old pizza box from a restaurant beside Berlin’s Landwehrkanal found its way onto the back of the vinyl, turning an ordinary piece of the band’s life into part of the record’s visual identity.
‘Another Kind of Freedom‘ may be difficult to pin neatly to one particular corner of punk, but that seems precisely the point.
Its four songs pull in different directions without losing sight of the ideas connecting them, combining social frustration, existential unease and irreverent humour with the rough garage punk energy that remains unmistakably Lemongrab.
With ‘Another Kind of Freedom‘, Lemongrab do not attempt to smooth out their contradictions.
Instead, they make them the EP’s greatest strength, four different moods, four different arguments and one defiantly scrappy punk record that finds freedom in refusing to behave exactly as expected.