Garage Rock

New album: Tha Retail Simps || Real Simple

Your favorite garage-'n'-roll jukebox just got catchier

By / / Blues & Roots, Garage Rock, Psych, Punk / Leave a Comment

Retail Simps change articles like it’s the most normal thing in the world, with total disregard for record-collecting purists. First Thee Retail Simp, then Tha, then Thine, then Theeee, and now… Tha Retail Simps again.

Musically, you kind of know what to expect from Retail Simps, but you should also expect the unexpected. This time, perhaps we should take the album title literally, because the surprise on Real Simple is just how accessible and easy on the ears it is. I struggled with last year’s Tantric Decapitation: 69 minutes of trichotomy and liquefaction. It doesn’t help that running this site leaves us precious little time to spend with a record that demands 69 minutes of our attention. Real Simple is practically the opposite. Has it ever been easier to fall for this band?

Sure, they still play wild rock ‘n’ roll and remain more exciting than your average guitar band. But here, things feel less complicated. There are proto-punk hits like Bored To Tears On Earth and HI-HEEL Sneakers, the jangly outsider garage pop ‘n’ roll of Gems & Sand and Garage Prelude, the Velvet-esque Daffodil Girl, and the frat-rocking Rock Jocks. It’s a Retail Simps jukebox with something for just about everyone, and you’ll want to keep feeding it coins.

Just when they were losing me, they pulled me right back in. What a band!

Real Simple is out now on 12″ via Total Punk.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: James Wavey || Sleepers Break

"Here to disrupt the scene"

By / / Garage Rock, Psych, Punk / Leave a Comment

Always cool when artists can make good music in all genres. San Francisco-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Michael Bridgmon has traded the hip-hop of Alleyes Manifest for the soulful garage psych of James Wavey, and that also suits him well. Sleepers Break is a six-song EP recorded live with a genre-defying band, and that’s exactly what it sounds like.

Musically it’s raw and restless, lyrically it’s charged with sharp social commentary: “Behove to write another tragedy // Hoodwinked by your majesty // Miles away from home // What are you running from?” (from Today Is Your Greatest Weapon). This release doesn’t promise a brighter tomorrow, it just makes standing still feel like the wrong answer, and that in a seriously cool way.



Sleepers Break—produced by Michael Bridgmon with Mike Joseph Walti—is out digitally, on CD-R and 12″ vinyl, through Dandy Boy Records. Featuring Michael Bridgmon (vocals, piano, organ, xylophone, guitar), Jafar Green (guitar), Taylor Christian Roach (bass), and Colin Howard (percussion, drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The Hickeys || The Hickeys

The Hickeys turn ’60s girl-group pop into a gloriously bratty mess

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Fish & Cheap Records is one of those labels that makes it very easy to love vinyl again. The Nantes label puts out punk, power pop and glam that sounds dangerous, looks cheap and comes with a price tag that won’t hurt your wallet. From Tuxedo Cats and Bugg Music to Bart and the Brats, The Etters, PLEASANTS and Xray Xeroxx, the label keeps finding cool low-budget bands, pressing their music onto round vinyl discs, putting a black-and-white cover on them and selling them for minimum profit and maximum pleasure.

The latest is the five-song EP by The Hickeys, which came out on cassette earlier this year via Gainesville label Floating Skull. Fish & Cheap slightly changed the sequencing of the demo, but kept the ramshackle charm of this Florida trio, featuring members of Gnats, Eggs, Superbitch and Greasy Bitches, fully intact. This is straight-up girls-from-the-garage fun, like they’re playing their own deranged version of ’60s girl-group and rock ’n’ roll hits: super lo-fi, super bratty, cheeky and extremely fun.

It goes from na-na-na to yeah-yeah-yeah to woo-hoo. Boogiewoogie, let’s go!

FYI: Out in a limited run of just 50 copies. Make sure to also grab that Crawlers/Black Ladies 7″ which also came out this week.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: CHECKER || I REALLY DO BELIEVE

Detroit garage pop duo is more dan ready to woo the world in all caps

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

Detroit Rock City strikes again: please meet CHECKER. Although they are not nearly as wild as predecessors like The Stooges, MC5, The Gories, The White Stripes, or The Dirtbombs, those influences definitely linger in the more pop-oriented sound that McKenna Fain and Nas Cinque Sorrell bring to the table together. Their debut full-length I REALLY DO BELIEVE is a 65-minute double album with no fewer than 21 quite varied tracks (including three instrumental interludes), and it has everything to conquer the world.

The cool duo deals just as easily in gritty guitars and expressive vocals as in acoustic ballads and dreamy harmonies, but all ideas always serve the song. There is fuzz and humor, but these songwriters are not interested in cynicism for cynicism’s sake; they believe there’s still something worth fighting for. That rare yet welcome optimism is just one facet of the charm, as this record is sprawling by design, with relatable lyrics and a stubborn aesthetic that binds its many moving elements together. At this point, believing in the band’s future hardly requires a leap of faith.




I REALLY DO BELIEVE, produced by Checker and Brion Riborn, is out now digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Dude Cervantes and The Panchos || Dude Cervantes and The Panchos

Dude Cervantes (Mrs. Henry, Chest Fever, Howlin' Rain) enthralls with a record rooted in places, people, and sounds that shaped him

By / / Blues & Roots, Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

Following the live LP The Ride or Die of Dude Cervantes and The Panchos, the roots rockers from San Diego, California have now released their first studio album. There’s a dusty quality to this self-titled outing, as if someone left the amps humming at the end of a long desert somewhere in the adventurous no man’s land between raw blues, psychedelic soul, and energetic garage rock. The seven songs together take up 40 minutes, moving from melodic optimism in It’s A Beautiful Day to road-worn territory in pub rock hit Saturday Night and catchy standout track Lesson Learned, before the 09:47 long Reach Out heads off into the horizon. Thoughtful songwriting crosses twin guitars and a cowbell; it makes sense to pack for a road trip and blast this out into the world through open windows.



The eponymous Dude Cervantes and The Panchos album is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Blind Owl Records. Featuring Dude Cervantes, Dylan Donovan, Brenden Dellar, Ryan Grenda, and Justin De La Vega.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: David Delinquent & The I.O.U’S || Scandal

Alleycats in love with singalong punk 'n' roll

By / / Garage Rock, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

Thankfully, there’s still no shortage of loud guitars and big vocals, but David Delinquent & The I.O.U’S take it a step further. Scandal, their first full-length album, delivers ten songs with rhythms that gallop out of the speakers like stampeding horses, choruses that instantly compel listeners to sing along, and a saxophone that hits you right in the gut. The Scottish quintet, a sort of successor to the Delinquents (at least two-fifths, both in terms of the band and musically), wraps its infectious riffs and hooks (and even doo-wop-inspired harmonies) in a punk rock sound fueled by an shameless love of power pop. If you’re in the mood for some unpretentious fun, this is 27 minutes very well spent.



Scandal is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through 13 Deluxe Records. Featuring David Delinquent (vocals, guitar), Jason Paterson (guitar, vocals), Scott Sweeney (bass, vocals), Bonnie Ross (sax, vocals), and Gordon McNally (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || elasticStage

New album: Salmon Sisters || Taller Than Normal

Not just another band from Melbourne

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Garage Rock, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

Early August, Melbourne’s latest hypeworthy band Salmon Sisters dropped a pretty hot two-song teaser for the thing that came out this week: Taller Than Normal, a ten-song full-length that offers a playful take on garage rock-indebted punk. And while the fast stuff hits hard, with the cluster-bomb combo of T.O.X.I.N., Cock It and MeatgrindR, that’s only one side of Salmon Sisters.

Multiple singers and absurdist lyrics make sure things never stay in one place for too long. Elevator Music is upbeat, jangly indie rock with a chorus that goes something like “I wanna be a pregnant Salmon in a sea of demon fish.” Sure. Why not? Then there’s Like This, a bluesy storyteller about a boy named Kermit Jagger, the son of Mick Jagger, who had sex with a frog. I have questions, but I’m not sure I want the answers.

And that’s what makes Taller Than Normal so much fun. Salmon Sisters have the punk energy, a clear sense of identity (look at that band pic on the cover!) but they clearly aren’t interested in following any script.

This is not your average record, but it will definitely get people talking and listening.

Count us in.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Crystal Teardrop || Love You More

It's never too late

By / / Garage Rock, Jangle Pop, Psych / Leave a Comment

Barely a year after their consciousness-expanding debut LP, The Crystal Teardrop return with another technicolour trip through the late-60s psych-pop well. On their sophomore album Love You More, the British quintet delivers twelve new songs that approach the essence of the genre to perfection (the band’s tight, road-tested chemistry pays off), again with titles that nod to the tension between then and now (Tomorrow Starts Today, Times Are Gone, It’s Too Late).

Recorded live in the studio with minimal overdubbing, the jangling guitars can turn from acid-folk sheen to garage rock grit in a heartbeat. Alexandra Rose’s melodic vocals pull you further in, but the organ, and even more the sitar, give the music its unmistakable sound. It’s a sun-drenched listening experience, and although the lyrics certainly have some darker corners, this record is an open window to a brighter state of mind.



Love You More is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Rise Above Records / Popclaw Records. Featuring Alexandra Rose (guitar, mandola, vocals), Leon Jones (lead guitar, electric sitar), Stuart Gray (organ), Ed Quigley (bass, vocals), and Huw Woodward(drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Rise Above

New album: The XOXO’s || The XOXO’s

Sleazy punky power pop from Sheffield

By / / Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

The XOXO’s (Sheffield, UK) sound not just like a band I would write about — part of me is convinced I already did. But I can’t find it in the archives. The info mentions it being recorded last winter. Did I dream about hearing this band? 2,500 posts in, am I losing my mind?

Here are the facts: this one came out in May and has now gotten a physical release on Do It Thissen. Did I write a review on my phone and forget to transfer it to the site? Could be.

Either way, even if I’ve already told you about these people somewhere on these pages, I’ll say it again: go listen to this band. The XOXO’s play garage punk rock and power pop that is sloppy and poppy in exactly the right measure, the kind that would have fit right into that punky power pop scene of the ’10s alongside Something Fierce, Needles//Pins, Mother’s Children, Cozy and the likes.

Going to bed early for mental recovery now. But not before giving this record hugs and chef’s kisses.

The XOXO’s is out now on Delicious Clam and Do It Thissen Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Bad Sports || Follow Through

Bad Sports still know how to rock

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Bad Sports were one of my favorite bands in the world in the early ’10s. That run of Bad Sports (2009), Kings Of The Weekend (2011) and Bras (2013). Wow, just wow. Those records tick so many boxes: high energy, catchy songs, awesome guitar work, punk attitude, and everything played in full overdrive. Constant Stimulation (2018) was a reminder of the band’s awesomeness, as well as a step toward a broader, more ambitious rock sound, a road already hinted at on the 2016 mini-album Living With Secrets.

I’m not stalling before talking about the new EP. I just wanted to highlight that Bad Sports have always been a band worth following. Admittedly, though, it has been easy to lose track of them given their sporadic output over the past eight years. In the meantime, the band’s main focus has been on other projects, from acting as Jeff Burke’s super-tight Radioactivity band, to Daniel Fried’s TV’s Daniel Fried, to Orville Neely’s Memo PST and Spiritual Cramp.

But recently, the band entered the domain of television, appearing on Countdown and having a song featured on the Netflix show Tires. Apparently that was enough to get them writing new Bad Sports songs again. Four of those new songs are on the new 12″ (on BS Holdings Incorporated), which also collects the band’s two-song single from 2022.

And you know what? Bad Sports aren’t the same band they were in the early ’10s. But damn it, they’re still one of the most rockin’ bands around, and one look at their latest video will attest: these guys are still some of the coolest around. The songs still have that thing that made me love them in the first place: they make you want to turn the volume up, then turn it up again, just to see what happens.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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