New EP: Los Atascados feat. Sys Malakian || Capic​ú​a

Sunny instrumentals full of spirited guitar gymnastics

By / / Surf Music / Leave a Comment

Let’s shift our focus for a moment to Mexico, where surf rock band Los Atascados and guitarist Sys Malakian teamed up for some sun-kissed sounds that make you dream away to better times. Their joint Capic​ú​a EP contains four instrumentals, two of which are collaborations and two are individual tracks. It is all about shimmering melodies, with more moods than you would expect to fit on a 7″.


Capic​ú​a, recorded, mixed and mastered by Gabriel López, is out digitally and on 7″ vinyl through Otitis Media Records. Featuring Alberto Montes de Oca (lead guitar), Sys Malakian (lead guitar, rhythm guitar), Alberto Montes de Oca (rhythm guitar), Omar “Alf” García (bass), Miguel García (bass), F. Israel Sorkin T. (drums) and Gustavo López (drums). Two of the songs are vinyl exclusive and not available on Bandcamp or streaming platforms.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Otitis

New album: Chabrot || Abilou

Imaginative noise rock to unknown destinations

By / / Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

At first I misread the band name as Chatbot, but actually we are talking about Chabrot, a noise rock trio from Barcelona ​​consisting of real people—Arnaud Cayla-Xene, Guillaume Cayla-Xene and Alfredo Diaz Urdangarin—who have been making music together for over ten years. Their new full-length album is called Abilou, after a self-invented word to define an unknown place. Intriguingly, the record contains nine songs with more unfamiliar expressions, and the variety of structures, atmospheres and languages ​​makes it an adventurous listening trip even more. Whether you understand it or not, the galloping rhythms and gripping vocals are highly entertaining regardless.



Abilou is out now digitally (self-released)—so imaginative and original that a chatbot couldn’t have predicted it.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Waterboarding School || The Little Sports Mirror

Sun-soaked sonic goodness from Gothenburg, Sweden

By / / Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Surf Music / Leave a Comment

Waterboarding School is not a secretive CIA plot, but a five-piece from Gothenburg (Sweden) who just dropped their third album The Little Sports Mirror. Comprised of 8 tracks that just touch twenty minutes, Waterboarding School make it almost too easy to enjoy the record.

Their surfy garage pop is sun-kissed and West Coast influenced (think Allah-Las). The band keeps the pace going—bopping your head quickly becomes inevitable, but they make it feel leisurely and relaxed, and that sure is a nice space to reside in.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The CTMF || For Your Love

The Chatham Forts delve into the Yardbirds discography, with Juju on lead vocals

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

Yesterday’s roundup of the best cover songs from last month was already packed, and this release is fun enough to be highlighted separately, so here we go. Billy Childish (guitar, vocals), his wife Julie aka Juju (bass, vocals) and their 14 year old son (backing vocals) found themselves together with Wolf Howard (drums) at the Ranscombe Studios in Rochester, Kent (UK), where Julie proposed to record three of her favourites from The Yardbirds discography. No sooner said than done, and now their gritty versions of For Your Love, Shapes Of Things and A Certain Girl (here reworked as A Certain Boy) under the CTMF moniker are now available on shiny black vinyl. Naturally, the veterans in the group know how to make the most of it, but Julie’s lead vocals in particular leave us wanting more—these tunes are definitely among the finest covers of recent weeks.

The For Your Love EP is out now digitally via Damaged Goods Records and on 7″ vinyl through Spinout Nuggets.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Damaged Goods || Spinout Nuggets

Dusted || The 10 Best Cover Songs Of November 2024

By / / Alternative Rock, Funk & Soul, Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Power Pop, Surf Music / 1 Comment

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 November, Haruomi Hosono (by various artists), Margo Guryan (various artists), Green Day (Billy Cobb) and Joy Division (The Routes) were put in the spotlight, and numerous Christmas classics were given new packaging, but here we list some other choice cuts.

Empty Sky || Cover: The Fleshtones || Original: Elton John
Forty-five years after their first release, New York garage rock legends The Fleshtones dropped a new worthy long-player, titled It​’​s Getting Late (​…​and More Songs About Werewolves), out on Yep Roc. Besides strong self-penned songs like Way of the World and Wah Wah Power, there are good covers of The Hearse (written by Lee Hazlewood, first released by Al Casey) and Empty Sky (written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, first released by Roy Everett but a month later also by Elton John), all in the band’s signature sound.

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Dusted || The 10 Best Cover Songs Of November 2024Read More »

New single: Slander Tongue || Let It Snow

Now with an updated line up, Berlin quartet keeps delivering the sleaze and guitar goodness

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

If you hate holiday-themed music for all of its formulaic stickiness, rest assured. Slander Tongue’s Let It Snow is not a cover. It’s a sleazy guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll anthem with a contagious chorus—exactly what we would expect from the Berlin band, even though they sport a renewed line-up.

The song is one of two exclusive A-sides for a new 7″ on Alien Snatch Records, with 452 copies available in various color variants. The second track, Rock & Roll Bed, is an airy, laid-back rocker with plenty of swagger and guitar goodness.

In case you were wondering, Slander Tongue still got it!

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Des Demonas || Apocalyptic Boom! Boom!

Punk pulse and poetic fury ignite on genre-defying second LP

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

Des Demonas are a Washington, DC-based supergroup featuring Kenyan punk-poet Jacky “Cougar” Abok (Foul Swoops, Thee Lolitas) on vocals and percussion, Mark Cisneros (Hammered Hulls, Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, The Make-Up) on guitar, Paul Vivari (Benjy Ferree, DJ Soul Call Paul) on Farfisa organ and bass machine, and Matt Gatwood (Two Inch Astronaut) on drums. Apocalyptic Boom! Tree! is their sophomore full-length album, a sonic explosion, released seven years after the strong self-titled debut LP. They deliver thirteen new songs that are hard to pigeonhole, but which can undoubtedly be described as original, urgent and fascinating. The skilled band members stitch together styles and influences in an inimitable way, with plenty of room for each to excel, a textural treat—one moment an organ groove and guitar gymnastics the next, backed by a phenomenal rhythm section, all held together by the hypnotic beat poetry through distinctive vocals.


Apocalyptic Boom! Boom! is out now on vinyl LP through In The Red Records.

Add to wantlist: Discogs || In The Red

New EP: The Kewpie Dolls || The Kewpie Dolls EP

Canadian foursome throws a party like it's 1965 on raucous debut

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Please meet The Kewpie Dolls, a badass all-girl garage punk outfit from Toronto, Ontario, who make a splash with their self-titled debut EP. It’s a raw and raucous eight minutes—four lo-fi songs that wouldn’t be out of place on one of those awesome 60s compilations: Bad Boy Mine, Private Party, Can’t Sit Down, and Justine—full of fuzz, twang, and dirt. They revive the spirit of youth rebellion with girl group inspired lyrics and rhythms for the dance floor—for those who dare.


The four tracks of The Kewpie Dolls EP, recorded and mixed by Paddy Burn, are out now digitally; two of the tracks—Bad Boy Mine b/w Private Party—are available on 7″ vinyl through Ugly Pop Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs 

New album: Slouching Sparrows || Slouching Sparrows

Attractive debut charms with jangly guitars and poetic lyrics

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Slouching Sparrows is the “glue wave” project of South American-born/England-based singer-songwriter Rohan Fitzpatrick—his Analogue Agaric blog shows he’s multi-talented. On this self-titled debut album you will hear twelve lo-fi tunes, recorded this year in various bedrooms and kitchens, using a 1975 guitar and a mountain of pedals, a smutty microphone and a Tascam 8-Track Digital Portastudio, but above all a good dose of courage and creativity. It is a fascinating search for an own musical identity, working with jangling guitar melodies, a vintage-sounding drum machine, pleasant vocals and relatable lyrics full of imagination. The result is more than appealing.



The self-titled Slouching Sparrows album is out now digitally, on cassette and CD, via Analogue Agaric Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Peacocks || And Now What?

Catchy hooks and driving rhythms from Switzerland's rockabilly heroes

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

“I wasn’t trying to save you // Just wanted to help // You know, people with very large record collections // Often don’t know how to look after themselves.” Relatable wordplay from Trouble, one of the twelve songs from And Now What?, the new LP by Swiss psychobilly trio The Peacocks, one of the many examples of what stuck with me.

It is seven years after their last album Flamingo (and almost a quarter of a century after their debut), but songwriter Hasu Langhart (guitar, vocals, his brother Simon Langhard (double bass) and Jürg Luder (drums) sound as original, energetic and urgent as ever. That means they once again deliver an electrifying mix of rockabilly, roots rock and garage punk, with appealing lyrics, powerful vocals, cool riffs and catchy choruses. Highlights galore, these guys don’t do fillers.




And Now What?, produced by David Langhart, is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Concrete Jungle Records (Edel / Kontor New Media).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Out of Vogue

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