Double Negative. Black Time.

Another band that learned all it ever wanted to know about rock and roll from Dave Davies’ razor slashed guitar amp. Fully deserving of the In The Red stamp of approval, they may be the loudest goddamn band I own, other than Guitar Wolf. It’s magnificently lo-fi, too, like it was recorded in a closet of an abandoned hammer factory built inside a cave. They claim to be proponents of the “heavy vampire sound”, whatever that means (they are neither goth nor sparkly, though they do carry on a long British tradition of spookifying their garage rock; cf. When the Clock Strikes Twelve and Scary People).

It’s all raw-screaming-noisy-punk-garage-rockabilly-distorition-blues-raw-raw-rawr with a heart of 60’s pop confection that gets torn out from under your feet and shredded amid ear stabbing primitiveness every time you think you’ve got a hold of it. The standout—sounding all the sweeter for being nestled in so much bone chafing distortion--being the indie-crushed I’m Gonna Haunt You When I’m Gone (sung by Janie Too Bad) which could be a psychic-historical pre-echo of Beat Happening caught on the only known acetate of a 1960’s regional girl band trying their hand at one of those MY Boyfriend’s Back/My Girlfriend’s Dead songs that used to be so popular.

The All Music Guide describes it as being "performed and recorded with a technical finesse that makes Billy Childish sound like David Gilmour", which may be the best blurb ever.

Black Time

Dan Melchior. Bitterness, Spite, Rage and Scorn.

Like some rare, unexpectedly righteous blues rock platter dug out of a garage sale, Bitterness, Spite, Rage and Scorn is an homage, an elation, a junkyard cathedral to the Savage Chord. Its grooves were carved by hand with a pair of rusty knives.

With a voice like a smashed window and a devotion to pile-driving minimalism, Dan Melchior plays fuzzed out swamp rock (swamped out fuzz rock? rocked out swamp fuzz?) like John Lee Hooker and Mark E. Smith’s love child. He has a long pedigree with Holly Golightly and Billy Childish, so you know what you’re getting into.



Bitterness

Boomgates. Bright Idea / Cameo.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring put on the best punk show I’ve ever seen. And I don’t mean punk as a style of music, but whatever it was about the original incarnation, whatever DIY exuberance, whatever magic connection it had to its audience, a true you/me/us, Eddie Current has it in spades. It was jaw dropping. There were maybe only twenty or so of us in the club, but they performed like their life depended on it.

Lead singer Brendan Suppression was a nervous bundle of energy who seemed to find his peace while performing, despite the fact that he was stalking back and forth on the stage like a slightly less manic Cornholio. It was the release of being truly yourself, even if that self is a bit twitchy and tightly wound. During instrumental portions he would lean wearily on his bandmates and hold his mic to their chests, like some sort of autistic attempt to plug directly in to their heartbeats, which seemed profoundly sweet. Towards the end of the show, after climbing all over the stage and merchandise table, he cautiously staggered into the audience while the band strummed and thumped and riffed furiously as if they could conjure up a secular rock n’ roll rapture right then and there. Drenched in sweat, Brendan repeated his mic gesture, touching each of us in turn as a sort of punk rock communion, sharing with us their energy and adding the sound of our bodies to their mix. A fan held a cold can of beer to the back of his neck to cool him off, and then it was over.

I’ve loved and thrived off music for ages, but that night was an epiphany. Fuck the hippies, this was the real thing. In that moment I felt like we all—all of us in the club, everybody on stage—loved one another; like we’d all just shared a communal vision of something rare and astonishing and perfect and beautiful. No church revival could ever compare.

Boomgates is (so far) a one off featuring Brendan and friends (Trial Kennedy, Teen Archer, The Twerps, Dick Diver), and it has a definite ECSR vibe, but softened by the addition of Stephanie Hughes’ dulcet voice. It’s a looser, poppier affair that just wants to hang out with you and settle comfortably onto your heart. The summery Bright Idea trundles along on a strolling, rubbery bass that falls somewhere between a relaxed ECSR and the Go-Betweens, and the interplay of Brandon’s vocals and Steph’s backing whoah-o-ohs make me think of old C-86 tunes or Slumberland releases. The guitars are still nice and trashy, though. B-side, Cameo, lets Steph take lead on the vocals before Brendan comes in with an homage to Lou Reed’s talking songs, only with an Australian accent and having to do with relating some weird dream he had. It alternates between the story and the sharply jangly chorus where they all erupt, singing “you’re just a cameo in my dreams”.

In short, they are expectedly awesome, and “for your information, this is all you need to know”.

P.S.: They have a new single coming out on April 18th on Smart Guy Records.

Boomgates

Henry's Dress. Bust 'Em Green.

One of Slumberland’s best noisepop releases. The band has swept up the shrapnel from their debut into bristling piles of jagged, brightly colored confetti. Their shoegaze excesses have been condensed into blasts of garage punk mauling 60’s mod rock. You can see the genesis of the Aisler’s Set, but it’s a much, much louder, fuzzed-out version of what’s to come. When they’re going full tilt, they have a way of pummeling through a song with delirious abandon, which just digs the hooks in deeper. You may not notice them the first time, but soon you won’t be able to get Hey Allison, All This Time for Nothing, and Self Starter out of your head. It hurtles by in just under half an hour, so I’ve appended the songs from their 1620 single as a bonus.



Green

Schatzi and Hazeltine. Happy Birthday Baby / When Yr Alone.

The first couple of times I listened to this, I was sure some part of it had been recorded on the wrong speed. The vocals are so damnably cute and coy—a winking come-on from a couple of Ronettes obsessed teenage garage punks hiding switchblades in the pockets of their leather jackets. But now it all falls together. All the great 60's girl-group pop was about love and obsession, so it makes sense that Schatzi and Hazeltine have built their own musical shrine to the sultry sound of tuff-girls and the menacing vulnerability of teen love. You can feel the sway of her hips in the swagger of her voice. They're lipstick killers—gang debs demanding kisses in exchange for the pleasure of their songs.

The hand-made, low-budget wall of sound is exceptionally well crafted and layered, much more so than you'd expect for a couple of songs that were probably dreamed up and tossed off in one exuberant afternoon. It's a total blast. Plus hand-claps! Glockenspiel! That moist, swollen-lipped, tiger-kitteny growl they stole from Ronnie Specter for the "oh-oh bay-a-buh's"! Crush worthy.

Video for When Yr Alone


Happy Birthday Baby

Buy it from Insound (US) or Bachelor (Europe)

The Casual Dots. The Casual Dots.

This quite often ends up being the album I put on when I can't decide what I want to listen to. It's cool-people-hanging-out music.

Christine Billotte (Autoclave, Slant 6, Quix*o*tic), Kathi Wilcox (Bikini Kill, The Frumpies), and Steve Dore (Deep Lust) create blithe, laid-back pop that’s lean and seductive. Produced by Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, the group weaves an indie-garage-lullaby out of a casually complex dual-guitar interplay, and a propulsive backbeat that lets Christina’s gorgeous, smoky voice lead the way.

They’re by no means folk, but the songs have a Woody-Guthrie-punk quality to them in their own indie-populist way. I would like to have attended the grade school that sang Mama’s Gonna Bake Us a Cake alongside This Land Is Your Land. Despite (or perhaps because of) years in the trenches, they managed to appear with a unique, fully realized sound that none of their previous bands would prepare you for. While genre-hopping from leftist punk, to classic blues (the marvelous Bumblebee), to surf rock instrumentals, they manage to stiffen everything up, giving it a backbone and a little swagger as it marches along with their own distinctive stride.

Dots

V/A. The Rhythm of Rabies.

This was a mix CD I made for my girlfriend a while ago. As much as possible, it’s fantastically unhinged garage bands, heavy on the rawk. I had intended it to be all women or female fronted bands, but I ran out about two thirds of the way through, although I think their contributions still come out on top. Shrag do a wonderfully snotty song about the horrors of pregnancy. The Cosmopolitans sound like a primitive B-52’s with a song about their giant cat. Shitt Hottt were exactly that. Miss Pussycat, of Quintron &…, is possibly my favorite singer, ever. Completely guileless. When, for no apparent reason, they throw in a verse of the Jefferson’s theme song, you’ll either be on your knees in awe, or giving them a standing ovation. If you ever get a chance to see them live, do. Miss Pussycat even puts on a puppet show.

1. Pregnancy Scene - Shrag
2. Bumblebee - The Casual Dots
3. Can’t Explain – The A-Lines
4. Wild Moose Party – The Cosmopolitans
5. Ungawa – Chow Nasty
6. Surfin’ Bird – The Trashmen
7. Bad Girl – The Detroit Cobras
8. Going Outside My Head – Thee Headcoats
9. Your Room – The New Rags
10. 1-2-3-Go! – The Violettes
11. Boxx Damage – Shitt Hottt
12. Cafeteria Rock – The Rondelles
13. Fly Like a Rat – Quintron and Miss Pussycat
14. Rockin’ Date – The Micragirls
15. What’s the Signal? – Fuck-Off Machete
16. Blew My Baby Away – The Tears
17. Jammin’ the Wedge – Bald Eagle
18. Snakebite – Them Wranch
19. All Across the World – The Fuse!
20. Whoyouknow – McLusky
21. Strong Mental Night – Guitar Wolf
22. Heat Lightnin’ – Tuscadero
23. Crackin Up – Moe Tucker
24. Run Cold – Holly Gologhtly
25. Don’t Know Why – Mr. Airplane Man
26. Emulsified – Yo La Tengo
27. Private Idaho – The B-52’s
28. NYC’s Like a Graveyard – The Moldy Peaches (full band electric version)
29. Mr. Chang – Cobra Killer

Rhythm Part 1
Rhythm Part 2

V/A. What's All the Fuzz About.

What Wave magazine cassette compilation.

Disc 1:

01. Dead Moon - Black September
02. The Stand - Sometimes Girl
03. Free Love Society - Cherry Bomb
04. Thee Fourgiven - Me on the Prowl
05. Groot Velours - Hysterical
06. Sporting Bachelors - Chatter
07. Capt. Scarlet & the Mysterons - A Piece of Me
08. Mystic Eyes - Paradise
09. The Shakers - A Shot of Rhythm & Blues
10. Mission Impossible - Let Me Go
11. LI150'S - Destiny
12. Progressive Minstrels - Golden Touch
13. Marshmallow Overcoat - A Single Tear
14. Yard Trauma - Creeps on TV
15. The Cheepskates - Bye Bye Love

Disc 2:

01. The Chessmen - Pretty Girl
02. The Beatpack - I Despise You
03. The Cynics - Blue Train Station
04. The Ultra 5 - Go Baby Go
05. The Evil Hoodoos - Gloria
06. Sanity Assassins - Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk
07. Dr. Goldfoot & The Bikini Machine - LA Infatuation
08. Al Perry & The Cattle - Camper's Blues
09. Scuba Divers - Sweet Nothing
10. Lost Patrol - Grow Up Hard
11. Drums Along The Gardiner - Tacoma
12. Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - Woman Shake
13. The Legend Killers - She Gone Wyld
14. Dispossessed - Swan Song

Disc 1
Disc 2

The Tears. The Tears.

The best teenage garage punk band ever to emerge from Algoma, Wisconsin. There's nothing on here that's new or groundbreaking or life-changing or original, but so what? It's loud, fast, ferocious, and just wants to rock the fuck out, and what more can you ask of four kids (two guys, two sisters) in a garage? Shit, they're way tighter and more melodious, and've got buckets more energy and spirit than most bands in this vein. I guarantee you your band wasn't anywhere near this good in high school.

Tears

Them Wranch. Medium Rare.

Them Wranch say they're from Columbus, Ohio, but really they hail from any seedy bar where cowpunk, surf, garage rock, roots music, and psychobilly meet up to swill diesel fuel, steal your girlfriend, and convince you to let them crash on your couch. And somewhere along the way they will rock you like a sweaty hurricane.

Recommended activities while listening: 1. Burnin' past the fuzz while haulin' moonshine in your custom Mercury lead sled; 2. Bare knuckled boxing with an orangutan; 3. Converting your riding lawnmower/barc-o-lounger/dog into a nitro burning funny car.

Medium Rare

Them Wranch official website

Them Wranch on myspace

Henry's Dress. Henry's Dress.

Long before founding the divine Aislers Set, Amy Linton fronted this noise-pop garage band on Slumberland Records. Here, her sweet, laid-back voice floats atop peals of crisp feedback and heavy bass-lines that judder and thump like a dragster down a dirt road. Chopping down early Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and Black Tambourine into a Phil Spectorish girl-group sound, Henry's Dress made heavily distorted and immensely fun bursts of messy pop.

Henry's Dress

Henry's Dress on myspace

An old interview with the band

Tuscadero. The Pink Album.

Leather fits in all the right places.

Word on the intertubes is that both Sleater-Kinney and Rilo Kiley nicked Tuscadero's riffs for their own songs. I don't blame them, as this album is a candy-coated classic. It's effortless-gangly-confident-goofy-adorable fun, like sex in high-school.

Heat Lightnin' starts things off with a choppy riff, blitzkrieg drums and a exuberant "Woo!". It's instantly irresistible. Quick as a flash / The Light can ride you / Like having a motorcycle stuck inside you, which pretty aptly describes the whole album. Tuscadero catalog, celebrate and mourn all the tacky splendour and junky fun of growing up in the 70s—songs about board games, the best candies, crayola crayons, Nancy Drew books, their "beaver cleaver neighborhood", and teen idol crushes. What could so easily have come off as unbearably twee is instead non-stop, action-packed, punky pop. I'd bet the Rondelles and Shitt Hottt had Tuscadero in their record colelctions. You should, too.

P.S. This is the original Teenbeat release, not the re-recorded, slicker sounding Electra version (which I haven't heard, but by all accounts, this one is far more amateurishly fun).

Pink

Tuscadero on myspace

The Rondelles. Shined Nickels and Loose Change.

Someone should make a "New Tape Smell" unisex cologne/perfume. Wear it to your next concert and guys or gals old enough to remember would be inextricably drawn to your hazy aura of nostalgia. You'll smell like each person's best memories of youthful musical discovery. It will subliminally make them want to unwrap you. And after they sidle up to you, you can slip them this little album from shoulda-been, indie superstars, The Rondelles. They're fun incarnate. It'll totally get you laid.

Before they were even out of high school The Rondelles had an album under their belt and had toured with Sleater-Kinney and Sonic Youth. In fact, they sound a bit like S-K crossed with the Shangri-Las, with a heavy dose of garage rock fuzz organ and cheerleader choruses. This is actually a collection of their early, vinyl only singles and a handful of new songs, all of them catchier than the swine flu.

Seriously. You're gettin' some.

Shined Nickels

Rondelles on myspace

Shitt Hottt. Are You There God? it's Me Shitt Hottt.

Shitt Hottt are indeed just that. They are also defunctt (the extra t is for "typo"). Thankfully, before they left the stage, they put out one hell of a kick-ass, sing-along, tambourine-shaking, farsifa-organned, cowbelled, garage-rock, party record. It's like Bratmobile, Tuscadero and Sleater-Kinney got together and wrote a Sweet Valley High concept album over a few too many beers. It's sexy, sloppy, happy music to jump around your bedroom to. "Boxx Damage" and "Tony Danza Dacestravaganza" rule your school.

Are You There God

Shitt Hottt online (you can get a free ep here, too)

Shitt Hottt on myspace