Garage Rock

New album: Ugly Sounds || Never Say I’m Doomed

Dancing in the cemetery

On their Never Say I’m Doomed LP, Italian garage punk trio Ugly Sounds—Paolo Bonino (guitar, vocals), Fabrizio Flori (bass) and Alessandro Ladu (drums)—deliver eleven dirty and dangerous rhythm & beat stompers that wouldn’t have been out of place on the must-have Back from the Grave series. It’s madness to the max—confident and cohesive, manic and magnificent, raw and raucous, energetic and electrifying—with frantic guitar strumming, unstoppable drum rolls, and haunting vocals with screams, everything. You’d almost be scared, if it weren’t so damn good.



Never Say I’m Doomed will be released March 18 on vinyl LP through Groovie Records, but is already available digitally.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: Seely-Jurgens Band || We’ll Try b/w Get Me Off

A glammy soft and hard rockin' treat from two longtime friends

Get a load of this! An Ingrates/Dust Star (Justin Jurgens) and Sheer Mag (Kyle Seely) team-up? Color me excited already! Sheer Mag has been one of my favorite bands of the past decade, and Seely’s guitar work is a huge reason why. As for Jurgens, I’m all in on anything he puts out, whether it’s the power pop worship of Dust Star or the glammy lo-fi garage rock of Ingrates (think Slade as played by Exploding Hearts). Still, I wasn’t fully prepared for the Seely-Jurgens Band (SJB), who quietly dropped their first two-song single earlier this year.

This is full-on ’70s classic rock worship—no surprises there I guess, given the players involved. We’ll Try leans into a smoother glam rock sound than Seely and Jurgens’ other projects, packed with killer guitar work (a treat for Sheer Mag fans) and a softly sung, earworm chorus. Get Me Off hits harder, sounding like it was pulled straight from 50 years ago—a soulfully sung hard rocker that practically begs you to crank the volume all the way up.

Honestly, I need more where this came from.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Gus Baldwin and The Sketch || The Sketch

Formidable debut LP full of melodic guitar brutality

Buckle up! Austin singer/songwriter Gus Baldwin (formerly of Acid Carousel, but also active as a solo artist and collaborating with numerous other outfits) and his band The Sketch are wasting no time. They kick off their first joint album with a hefty salvo of raucous garage noise in three parts, as if to scare off any casual listeners, only to then show that they have more in store. What follows is still explosive, with fast riffage, stomping rhythms and emotionally raw vocals, but injected with a dose of psych, a sense of melody and even occasional whoo-hoo harmonies, alongside relatable lyrics. It sounds spontaneous and inspired—25 astonishing minutes.



The Sketch—all lyrics by Gus Baldwin; engineering, mixing and mastering by Joey Oaxaca—is out now digitally, on cassette and vinyl LP, through Permanent Teeth Records. Featuring Gus Baldwin (vocals, guitar), David Rawlinson (guitar, vocals), Lucas Martins (bass, vocals) and Trey Gutierrez (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Pink Chameleons || Harmony

Hypnotic psychedelic rock goes sun-kissed dreamwave

Finnish garage-psych trio Pink Chameleons makes a welcome return. Let frontman Paltsa-Kai Salama explain what we can expect from their sophomore full-lengther: “Harmony leans more into psychedelia than our more punk inspired debut album, 2021’s Peace and Love. The overall sound of Harmony is dominated by mellotron, hypnotic tremolo and electric sitar along with repetitive bass riffs and percussion.” I would like to add that the animals, rain and death have made way for more sunny themes and a laid-back atmosphere, and that suits them well. Telling song titles like Wrong Future and Colors Seem to Fade immediately appeal to the imagination, the execution more than lives up to that. This is music to dream away to, unique in its atypical instrumentation that is used to optimum effect. Soothing but anything but boring.



Harmony, written & recorded by Paltsa-Kai Salama, is out now digitally via Soliti. Featuring Paltsa-Kai Salama (vocals, guitars, electric sitar, organ, mellotron), Antti Sauli (bass) and Ville Hopponen (drums, percussion), with Jussi Hurskainen (saxophone), Tytti Roto (backing vocals), Silja Massa (vocals) and Iiro Tulkki (percussion) on select tracks.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Dusted || The 10 Best Cover Songs Of January 2025

Not all new music is really new, as many artists cover songs. Sometimes these are songs by their favorite artists, eg as a tribute to such a musical hero for a special reason, or they simply feel that a song deserves to be dusted and polished to reacquaint fans with great songs from the past. Other times, bands cover songs as a parody. Regardless of intent, some of those cover versions are so good or so much fun, we’d like to put a spotlight on them. Chosen from a wide range, here are – in random order – ten of our favorite covers from last month – links to the pages where you can add them to your wantlist included.

In January we already wrote about new releases with covers of Love & Happiness (Al Green) by Boogie Rockafella, The Hunt (New Model Army) by The Daniel James Gang, Boys Don’t Cry (The Cure) by Baby Combat, Running Away From You (The Rats) by Total Whine and Strychnine (The Sonics) by Walter Daniels, but let’s highlight some other choice cuts here.

This Strange Effect || Cover: Laundromat Chicks || Original: Dave Berry
It’s brave to start your album with a cover as well-known as this 1965 classic written by Ray Davies, but in the case of Laundromat Chicks’ intriguing Sometimes Possessed LP (Siluh Records), it does a great job of setting the tone for the original songs that follow. The four-piece from Vienna, Austria deliver a half hour of charming jangle pop that they claim is like a fever dream, coming from somewhere far away or almost forgotten. I’ve been listening to this record a lot in the wake of David Lynch’s passing, so it’s become something of a soundtrack to my memories of the iconic filmmaker’s idiosyncratic work for me—both the subject matter on this album and the atmosphere the songs breathe fit in very well.

New EP: The Daniel James Gang || Darkness Over This Town

Killer E.P. with pure rock-’n’-roll energy

“I know I have like ten billion musical projects going on now, and I’m stoked on all of them, but this is the one thing I’ve been the most stoked on,” says Daniel James (Chinese Telephones, Indonesian Junk, Ramma Lamma) about his Daniel James Gang. I get it. Based on their new EP, Darkness Over This Town, this might just be my favorite thing he’s ever done.

The four-song EP is a total ripper from start to finish. Josh Rutledge once described the Daniel James Gang as “glampunk for fans of power pop,” and he nailed it—this is sweat-soaked, hook-heavy rock-’n’-roll at its best. The EP features the previously teased Misery and a cover of New Model Army’s The Hunt, but for me, the real standouts are the two new tracks. Lies is a slick, groove-heavy rocker with an instantly addictive chorus, while the title track? That one is straight fire—a high-energy anthem that feels like an instant classic and is definitely in my top two songs with Darkness and Town in the title.

On Darkness Over This Town, the Daniel James Gang is Daniel James, Logan Stang (drums), and Johnny Cyanide (bass), with Geoff Palmer and Miski Dee (City Mouse) on backing vocals.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The Drip Edges || Kicking The Tires On The Clown Car

Memphis roots blended with unstoppable spirit on powerful debut

Let me introduce you to The Drip Edges, the new band from Memphis, Tennessee-based singer-songwriter Jeremy Scott (ex-Reigning Sound), along with Noel Clark, Graham Burks Jr. and Mitchell Manley. Their debut EP Kicking The Tires On The Clown Car features six straightforward garage rock songs that are well worth checking out. They cover The Tokens’ 1968 single Animal (you may also know the group from the hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight), but the self-penned songs are no less imposing, with catchy opener Everything’s Gonna Have to Be Alright leading the way. Expect heavy guitar riffs and ragged vocals lightened by hints of psych or country and almost doo-wop-like harmonies.



Kicking The Tires On The Clown Car, produced by Graham Burks Jr. and Jeremy Scott, is out now digitally (self-released). Featuring Jeremy Scott (guitar, vocals), Noel Clark (guitar, vocals), Mitchell Manley (bass, vocals) and Graham Burks Jr. (drums, vocals).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Game Show Models || Fight Theory

A raw budget "pop" gem

Today’s sonic assault comes from Chicago and is created by the benevolently titled Game Show Models, a band that started around 2020 with two bathroom “shit tapes.” Their new 6-song EP Fight Theory has no liner notes, but according to the recording quality, they very well fit the bathroom recording prototype as well. The raw edges makes the subtle pop sensibility of the band all the more pleasing. Listen to the standout punked up garage-power-pop-n-roll hits Something’s Wrong and On The Shelf, and the budget garage pop punk hits Break Into Your Heart and Enough For Me and try not to get excited by this band. Pretty awesome stuff, right?


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Santa Maria Death Trip || Lili’s Garden

RIYL: The Limiñanas, Babe Rainbow, Allah-Las, Mystic Braves, Ghostwoman, Night Beats

Santa Maria Death Trip is a Southern French garage psych outfit featuring Jérôme Dayon (guitars, vocals, glockenspiel), Emmanuelle Dayon (vocals, tambourine), David Migaud (guitars, keyboard), Marc Drulot (bass) and Pat Preacher (drums). After two EPs—Instrumentals (2019) and Seabeds (2021)—and a contribution to the mighty Perpignan Burning compilation (2024), they now take us on a colorful journey through the sumptuous debut full-length Lili’s Garden. We are taken along ten surfy but quite varied tunes—including a quirky sequel to their original version of Història—full of fuzz and reverb, with sun-kissed vocals, perfumed guitar motifs and suggestive harmonies. Although you can label the sound as vintage, it is not dated anywhere, rather refreshing and energizing.



Lili’s Garden, written, recorded and mixed by Jérôme Dayon, is out now digitally and on limited edition vinyl LP through Staubgold / Cougouyou Music.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: Beans & Fatback || Hold Fast

Amsterdam duo pays tribute to New York's gritty past

During the time Joseph Rodriguez was driving a cab in New York City, he picked up a camera to document the gritty and incredible street life he saw on the job. It led to the fascinating and telling book TAXI: Journey Through My Windows 1977–1987, which now inspired (and provided the cover picture for) Amsterdam-based Beans & Fatback‘s new full-lengther Hold Fast, their first in ten years. Onno Smit and Paul Willemsen deliver eleven new tunes around themes of temptation, loss and perseverance, in which—as we are used to—unpolished garage rock and soulful blues (with a touch of glam) blend into an energetic and catchy sound. Earlier single Tight Ripped Jeans could have been a hit by The Black Keys (comparisons are less evident elsewhere), but actually all tunes are easier to embrace than the late 1970s New York post-punk on which this record builds. It is a soundtrack clinging to humanity through raw soundscapes in a controlled manner, matching the aforementioned photo book.


Hold Fast is out now on CD and vinyl LP through AT EASE.

Add to wantlist: AT EASE

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