Paul Cary - "Ghost Of A Man" (2009)

Debut LP from former frontman of The Horrors (that's The Horrors from the US, not the UK band). Heavily blues infused garage rock and rockabilly revival. Excellent songwriting and lyrics which is great to actually be able to hear as the production isn't as scummy as other bands that delve into the whole 50s/60s garage vibe.

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Shannon & The Clams - I Wanna Go Home (2009)

Shannon & The Clams are an Oakland, CA, based garage rock/surf-revival group who do that style of music exceptionally well. 50s/60s girls-in-the-garage pop, prom night love songs, and malt shop rockers. Released on CD on 1-2-3-4-Go! records in 2009 and a limited edition (250 pressings) cassette reissue recently came out on Burger Records, get'em while they're hot!

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Track(s) of the Day: September 21, 2010

JEFF the Brotherhood are a two-piece band from Nashville, Tennessee. They're usually labeled garage but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I don't know much about garage but what I have heard of it has been more raw than JEFF. I was going to do a review of their latest album Heavy Days but it honestly isn't that great. It has its moments, and some of those moments are very good, but this duo still has a lot to learn about making an album. That being said it is worth a listen. Even at its worst it still makes for good background noise. They have potential and I'm excited to see what they can do in the future. If you take anything away from this post though, it's that they are a phenomenal live band. Even with just two people (and one of them playing a guitar with only three strings) they pull off a great performance full of energy. They're especially great in a small venue. I was lucky enough to see them in a record store and it was one of the best shows I've seen.

"Bone Jam"

"U Got The Look"

"Heavy Days" (Tame performance but best sound quality I could find)

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The Sonics - Here Are The Sonics!!! (1965)

Over the last year or two, I've listened to a whole fucking truckload of garage rock. I've discovered this brilliant history of recent rock'n'roll spun by the many side projects of too-little-known dudes like Greg and Jack Oblivian, Mick Collins, Mark Sultan and King Khan. I've cherrypicked from compilations of one-hit garage wonders from the 60s to assemble killer mixtapes packed with great tracks. In all that, I've never lost sight of the forefathers (okay, if I'm being honest, there were others like the Kingsmen and the Wailers and probably a whole host of bands I've never heard of, but none of them released the greatest debut album of all time (as far as I know - nested brackets ahoy!)). Almost everything I love about garage rock can be traced back to the Sonics, who took pop music and remade it in their own raunchy, explosive image. For my money, the Sonics are the greatest, most awesome rock'n'roll band the world has ever seen.

Here Are the Sonics!!! is the quintessential garage rock album. The Sonics’ songs touch on such divine subjects as fast cars, dance steps, and cruel women. The lyrics are wonderfully forgettable and Here Are the Sonics!!! gets by through sheer force of will. No songs could contain this energy. It’s actually best that the songs just give way to the frenzied power of the band.

Finesse wasn’t even remotely the point of the Sonics. They blasted you away with pure rock ‘n’ roll power. Their fuzzy-sounding guitars put a twist on that high energy Little Richard R&B. “The Witch” was the hit single that initially catapulted the Sonics in garage rock lore. Old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll songwriting like this has long since seen its demise. At some point it was simply time to move on, but it’s great to go back and check out when it worked so beautifully. These were a bunch of kids with time on their hands and a dorky conviction to cutting loose with some instruments.


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Track of the Day, September 5th 2010

This is my jam mo fuckas.

King Tuff-Sun Medallion

Oblivians - Popular Favorites (1996)

I've been recommending this band for a long time now on the Vesti to someone who is even remotely interested in Rock or Punk, and have a been a favorite of mine for a while now.

The trio's musical-chairs approach to instrumentation makes it nearly impossible to keep track of who has the mic at any given moment, but despite the juggling act, the record maintains a cohesive sense throughout. Marked by abrasive guitars that call to mind everyone from the Gibson Bros. and Junior Kimbrough to the New Bomb Turks or Lazy Cowgirls, the Oblivians' dirty rock calls to mind images of panicked parents in the 1960s trying to shield their children from the evil powers of rock & roll. Well, everyone knows who won that battle. Mixed among the riotous guitar treble and gruff vocals are songs with universal themes like "Guitar Shop Asshole" and "You Fucked Me Up, You Put Me Down." Though the back cover boasts that "There never was a sound like this before," spinning discs by acts like the Mummies, 68 Comeback, Iggy & the Stooges, or Them Wranch will prove otherwise, but who's complaining? If you dig through the record collection of any self-respecting rock & roller (or the list of bands who influenced acts like the White Stripes or the Strokes), odds are there'll be at least one Oblivians opus (or Oblivians spin-offs, like Jack Oblivian's Compulsive Gamblers or Greg Oblivian's Reigning Sound). In a move typical of the hipsters over at Crypt, the album cover art is half the fun. An overlooked classic, the cover of Popular Favorites is a photo of concertgoers wherein a guy and gal in matching Black Sabbath t-shirts are standing next to a mulleted young man proudly displaying a homemade t-shirt that reads "Kill a Punk for Rock & Roll."

Oblivians 'The Leather'
Oblivians 'The Milkshake'

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Ty Segall - Ty Segall (2008)

Garage rock, then is one main element to Segall’s sound. The other is jump blues, early R&B and rockabilly. Here, because of the one-man set-up, the insane energy and the dubious recording technology, the obvious comparison is Bob Log III. Like Log, Segall doesn’t fuss much over tone, emphasizing fury over finesse in his stripped down guitar barrages. And though he’s not singing through a mic in a motorcycle helmet, the vocals have a claustrophobic echo and clatter. With “Pretty Baby (You’re So Ugly),” Segall sounds like he’s being damn-near electrocuted as he yips and hollers, tambourine rattling, guitar burning a detuned hole through the manic beat. It only lasts about a minute, but what a minute it is.

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