Garage Rock

New album: Night Beats || Rajan

By / / Garage Rock, Psych / Leave a Comment

The first three Night Beats albums – Self-Titled (2011), Sonic Bloom (2013) and Who Sold My Generation (2016) – lived up to the band’s name in terms of sound; Myth Of A Man (2018) was more suitable for morning coffee, and Outlaw R&B (2021) for brightly colored afternoons. So it feels logical that the new Rajan LP takes us to sultry summer evenings. Texas-born, LA-based artist Danny Lee Blackwell (actually: Danny Rajan Billingsley) wrote, constructed and perfected eleven cinematic outlaw psych tracks about the pursuit of freedom that was instilled in him by his mother. It led to a record that is simultaneously the most coherent and versatile to date, drawing influences as diverse as blues, funk, soul, dub, psychedelic pop and rock, Spaghetti Western soundtracks and traditional Eastern music (the garage rock of the early days has faded into the background). It’s well thought out and wonderfully orchestrated, mysterious and hypnotic, atmospheric and exotic, rich and warm. Bring on those sultry summer evenings.

Rajan is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Fuzz Club Records and Suicide Squeeze.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Fuzz Club || Suicide Squeeze

New single: Bart And The Brats & The Battlebeats || Chickpea Records Presents An International Garage Split: Vol. 7

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / 1 Comment

In today’s episode of How Many Songs Can You Fit On A 7″ record, the contestants are Bart And The Brats (France) and The Battlebeats (Indonesia) who each take on one side of the vinyl disc. Let’s start with Bart’s side. He delivers four songs that were recorded in the same sessions of his acclamed Assorted Cuts LP – released last month. All four songs are rippers, a mutated KBD take on the Ramones. On The Battlebeats side, we find five songs which strengthen The Battlebeats’ reputation as one of the most exciting garagepunk bands around.

Four and five makes nine. Nine songs! That’s good value for your money, particularly if you consider the quality of the tunes. Buy the 7th volume of the International Garage Split at Chickpea Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp (BatB) || Bandcamp (TBb) || Discogs

New album: Fast Color || Freaks Feel Like Divas

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

We were introduced to Californian rock outfit Fast Color over a year ago, when their self-titled debut EP caught our attention. Then a trio, now a duo – Kelly Larkin and Sean Doherty – coming up with a first LP called Freaks Feel Like Divas. Their music – hovering somewhere between fuzzy garage pop and dreamy indie rock with a touch of psych – still is just as charming and ramshackle, but the eight new songs win in terms of sound, structure and surprise. Compelling melodies, jangly guitars, atmospheric keys and jaunty vocals, delivered with a Velvet Underground coolness, this is an inspired performance.



Freaks Feel Like Divas, self-recorded & self-produced, is out now digitally and on vinyl LP (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Bad Mother || Hesitation

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

New can be a relative adjective when speaking of a record that has just been released. In case of Bad Mother (Chicago), they recorded Side A of their Hesitation LP in 2020, and Side B in 2021. That feels like ages ago! It is out just now at Religious Records on two variants: Transparent Red and Transparent Smoke vinyl. I am not sure what the band’s current line up is, but throughout the years Bad Mother has had members of The Jetbirds, Poison Boys, The Frantic and Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts. Current Skid Row drummer Rob Hammersmith plays on the Side B songs.

Bad Mother are an American rock’n’roll band by heart. There are touches of Seventies’ rock and powerpop but also of ’80s pop metal. I’d almost use glam as well, but there is a blue collar vibe to the songs of Bad Mother, not unlike the music of Nato Coles and The Blue Diamond Band.

Hesitation is not available for streaming on Bandcamp unfortunately, but you can order the record there. You can also listen to it on most of the streaming platforms. If you’re not on those platforms and want a bigger sample than the video below, listen to Enemy, Right Down The Road and Drove which are my favorites on the album.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: 2M80 || 2M80

By / / Garage Rock, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Psych / 1 Comment

2M80 is a new project by Vinny Earley of Vaguess and Staz Lindes of The Paranoyds. Their debut full length is out now on a very limited Tape run through Under The Gun Records. It’s pretty special.

From opener What Trent Does, 2M80 will draw you in with tunes that seem to come straight from the Velvet Underground and Flying Nun songbooks. Some songs are scrappy art rock, others are jangly pop nuggets, some are faster and upbeat, still others are slow and seductive. The delivery has a spontaneous feel to it, the production sounds loose, the vocal interplay sure is complementary, and the songwriting is top notch throughout. Highly recommended!




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Pink Spiders || Freakazoid

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

Nashville rock band The Pink Spiders have been in business for twenty years, but Matt Friction (lead vocals, guitar), JoCo (bass), Joey B-Side (drums) and Young James (guitar) seem to be at the top of their game. The ten songs on their new (fifth) full-length album Freakazoid are hook-heavy, infectious and danceable – polished power pop with touches of glam rock and pop punk. You get one of the most beautiful declarations of love ever (“You make me wanna come home thinking // Why’m I goin’ out all night to high five dickheads I don’t like?” – from Let’s Go Home), but above all this record offers a lot of positive energy that is as magnetic as it is gratifying.




Freakazoid is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Pure Noise Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Pure Noise

New EP: Highball || Five Cubes

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Highball is a new band out of West Springfield, Massachusetts fronted by Shane Dupuy (Laika’s Orbit, Anthropophagous, Tortured Skull and others), Steve Cameron and Cole Lanier (California X). They released their debut EP Five Cubes digitally a couple of months ago. I missed it, since Highball chose tags on Bandcamp like hard rock and heavy metal. That’s not to say those tags don’t make sense at all – Highball definitely rocks hard and it’s clear that their music is heavily influenced by ’70s hard rock. But it’s more Thin Lizzy meets Replacements than Black Sabbath or Metallica.

Anyhow, Fort Wayne cassette label Demolisten Records decided to release the EP on Tape. It’s how I discovered the existence of Highball, even though I am a huge fan of Dupuy’s band Laika’s Orbit. Note to self: try to keep up more with the wheelings and dealings of artists you admire and appreciate. This Highball project kicks ass, and I can’t stop playing No One Out But Through. What a hit!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Demolisten

New album: The Far Outs || The Far Outs

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

The Far Outs are a garage rock duo from Brisbane, Australia, in which Phil Usher (vocals, guitar, keys, percussion) and Jonny Pickvance (drums, handclaps) can do what would have been inappropriate in their other projects (Grand Atlantic, Blonde On Blonde, Fingerless, Sacred Shrines, Hillsborough, etc), and they do it with swagger. Their first single Last Night made it to my year-end list of 2021, and now it opens their self-titled debut LP. From the band name (actually in capitals: The FAR OUTS) and the cover art (their black & white logo) to the raucous sound (rooted in the 60s) and the lyrics where the tones are more important than the words themselves (“I’ve nothing to say to you // Cause you could never feel these blues”- from Bad Thing), everything matches and impresses. The ten songs they blast out of your speakers in 32 minutes are raw and primitive, exactly how they should be.



The Far Outs’ self-titled album, written & produced by Phil Usher, is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Ripple Music / Rebel Waves Records.

Add to wantlist: The Far Outs @ Bandcamp (Australia) || Ripple Music @ Bandcamp (Europe / US)

New album: Joan of Arkansas || Imperfectionists

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

Please meet Joan of Arkansas, a Phoenix, Arizona-based sludge pop five-piece featuring Kayla Long (vocals), Joshua Lynch (bass, vocals), Zach Bird (guitar), E.P. Bradley (guitar) and Sean Harris (drums). After three EPs and five singles within two years (with amps catching fire twice), they now have released their debut full-length album Imperfectionists. It’s quite overwhelming in many ways, coloring fiercely outside the lines. Musically it’s a dynamic, aggressive and distorted mess of punk, indie rawk, power pop, emo, stoner metal and garage rock, with frantic guitar strumming, unstoppable drums and street-tough vocals. Lyrically it’s poetic and profound (“The secret to happiness is // Lowering the bar so your ego can fit in” – from Sign of the Cobra), often dark (“I’ll peck my own damn eyes out // And drink // Until I black out” – Peck), but at times catchy (“Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” – Big Ass El Camino). Emotion is much more important here than perfection – the thirteen songs are so authentic, raw and loud that they hit the mark anyway.



Imperfectionists, recorded liveish with Jalipaz Nelson, is out now digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The T-Makers || The Way I Feel

By / / Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Power Pop / 1 Comment

Last weekend, I received an e-mail by one of our readers. To paraphrase, the reader wanted us to check out a band from Mallorca that would be a perfect fit for our site. The reader described the band as having a mix of 60s girl group, classic beat and rock’n’roll, female fronted power pop of the late 70s early 80s and current bands like Shannon and The Clams. Now, place yourself in my position, imagine my interest was piqued. Still, the hit percentage of the mails we receive is shockingly low, so with some healthy low expectations I clicked the link. Only to find out the reader was absolutely right! This one goes straight to the wantlist.

The name of the band is The T-Makers. The four members on the EP are Pazzis Veiret, Xesc Carbonell, Moncho Martín and Luigi ‘dos ritmos’ – who has since been replaced by the band’s new drummer Mats Lindholm. All four songs on the EP are hits. Another Baby starts with that classic Be My Baby drumbeat, only to turn into a great indie pop song with hints of ’60s girl group. My Records, Take Me As I Am and The Way I Feel sound like a Blondie/The Shivvers hybrid and would not have looked out of place on that Heroes Of The Night compilation I wrote about last week. Released earlier in the year, this killer EP slipped through our nets. So many thanks to that sharp eared reader! The Way I Feel EP is available on a 7″ single through Cero En Conducta Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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