Posts Tagged ‘Garage Pop’

Popular Posts Tagged ‘Garage Pop’

Premiere: Pega Monstro – “Ó Miguel”
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Mozes and the Firstborn – Power Ranger EP
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Saint Cecilia – “We Know Us”
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Death By Unga Bunga
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Easy Love – “I’ll Be Fine”
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Hockey Dad
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Wyatt Blair – “The Want To Be Wanted”
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Death By Unga Bunga “Tell Me Why”
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Wyatt Blair – “The Want To Be Wanted”

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

Wyatt Blair tackled ‘80s excess with a deft scalpel on his last album, finding a way to push Kenny Loggins’ towering tentpole radio hits to a place that was somehow nostalgic and quaint without feeling like he was trying too hard on Karaoke night. Now he’s on the verge of a new album and the first single is taking aim at another sweep of the ‘80s cinematic arm. Instead of guitar anthems that conjure visions of shirtless volleyball, caddy parties and repressed heartland teens, this time he’s taking aim at The Breakfast Club set. The latest single is packaging synthpop heartbreak into the kind of radio fodder that once buoyed Tears For Fears and Simple Minds with some new wave guitar slices that pull from the sheath of Echo & The Bunnymen or Modern English. Needless to say, I stand a bit curious to see if he continues this bent for a full album or if this remains an aberration on his style, but “The Want To Be Wanted” pulls off its trick nicely just the same.


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Hockey Dad

by on ·New Albums, Reviews

The second volley from Windang, Aus’ Hockey Dad sends a vat of growth hormone raining down on the band’s sound. Not that Boronia could be accused of sounding scrappy, but everything that made that record tick is blown up to towering, shiny proportions on Blend Inn. The band is often lumped into a “Surf Rock” sound, which might have to do with their coastal town fostering a surf scene and some early videos featured the band members indulging in the waves. However, they are much more accurately embracing the axis of punk and grunge that pushed through the ‘90s, putting some meat on the bones of punk’s pogo riffs and embracing the allure of a bigger pulpit from which to hawk the resulting crunch pop. In the end, they’re about as surf as Weezer, I suppose, in that they’ve embraced some of the iconography, but not so much the ska-skiffle bounce when it comes to the fretwork.

At heart, the band is echoing traces of the mid ‘90s Fort Apache sound filtered through two or three generations of slacker pop buffer. They take some time to wind down the pace for some heartfelt swoons under the Aussie moon, finding themselves balancing the album’s sunburn grind with the requisite beer cooldown every so often, but they tend to shine brightest when the volume swells. The bigger sound feels good on them, bolstered by production from John Goodmanson (Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab), and it fits with their rise from garage-punk upstarts into a more in-demand act over the last eighteen months. Ever impressive is the band’s ability to squeeze a quartet’s worth of punch out of just two players. Their sound is never wanting, but lean, with a touch of bite.

I’d had hope with the band’s first album and they’ve lived up to any expectations placed on them for their sophomore album. Still scrappy at heart, but with a thicker sonic stew brewing here, they’re definitely working out to be contenders.





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Saint Cecilia – “We Know Us”

by on ·Videos

A nice charmer to cap off the week, this cut from Saint Cecilia’s slept on record from the end of last year gets a new life through video. The song is pure girl group swoon, but the keys give it a tight new wave bent that drags it out of the garage ghetto and floats it above the fray. Cecilia Enriquez taps into a psych-pop that’s glittering without feeling frivolous. There’s a dark undercurrent that keeps this tethered and bites down for blood and its absolutely infectious. If you missed out on this last year, get into it now!

Support the artist. Buy it HERE (tape) . or HERE (dig).

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Premiere: Pega Monstro – “Ó Miguel”

by on ·Videos

Lisbon duo Pega Monstro is back with a new LP for UK DIY label Upset The Rhythm. This time they’ve turned down the growl and reclined into the sunny strums of sweet-natured garage pop. It’s not a total departure from their last album, but certainly they’re entertaining the pop half of that phrase more than the garage these days. The new single, “Ó Miguel” jangles its way into your heart in barely two-minutes, but it can’t help but brighten any day. Paired with visuals from Sara Graça, the band’s video for the track comes together like a Wet Hot American Summer dance routine, silly and saccharine, but almost infectiously fun. Casa De Cima found its way out last week and if you’ve missed out, take some time to dig into the sisters’ new charmer.


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Easy Love – “I’ll Be Fine”

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

New one here from Easy Love, the solo project from Justine Brown of Summer Twins. The song doesn’t stray too far from the Twins’ breezy ’60s pop overtones and general swooning appeal, but with a thickened sound and a grind of fuzz guitar backing her up, Brown’s new venture is hitting ticking all the right boxes around here. The song is drenched in longing, an ode to lost souls everywhere finding their way back to solid footing. The track is off of her upcoming album on Lollipop / Burger, which seems like a fitting home for her, given an already rosy track record with Burger. The track is probably one of the best I’ve heard out of Summer Twins or Brown’s previous solo work and it begs some attention when the full album drops in Feb.

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Death By Unga Bunga

by on ·New Albums, Reviews

DBUB have been cracking at the skull of the European garage scene since 2010, but its just now that they’re crawling into the US consciousness and its damn good timing, because Pineapple Pizza is their crispest set yet. The EU never went in for that whole lo-fi buzz bin. They’ve kept garage above board and crystal clear for years and this album reminds me in the best ways of the pure fun of the 2002 garage revival that put everyone back into the pit as a herald of rock’s return. The record has a pop heart that beats loud and clear, with hooks the size of Subarus locking down its nucleus and a relentless bounce of cheerfulness that makes this album border on pop punk in the fun department. Its at least a close cousin of the genre at heart, even if the band sees themselves as more of a garage band.

Don’t know who’s choosing the singles on this one, but despite the initial punch of “Tell Me Why” the best bits here are being overlooked. “Best Friends” casts its hooks in early on and “Make Up Your Mind” is a nodder as well and “Strangers From the Sky” is as big as they come. Catchy though it is, “Young Girls,” which did make the singles cut, makes me cringe in that way that Bad Sports’ “Teenage Girls” did a few years back. Its hard to sing along to a song that’s predatory at heart. No matter how “celebratory” you think your anthem of youth is, its creeping us all out. But that trip aside, this one’s a keeper and one of the most fun records to come onto the speakers in a long long time.

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Mozes and the Firstborn – Power Ranger EP

by on ·Bits & Pieces, News

RSTB faves Mozes and the Firstborn have been pretty quiet since their super solid 2013 eponymous LP. But it would seem that the silence is broken and hopefully its just the tip of the ‘berg for the Dutch crew. They’ve got an EP with four new tracks up for free download over at their Bandcamp this week. Still mining their same classic rock impulses, via the oversized sound of early aughts psych Juggarnauts like Soundtrack of Our Lives and building choruses on a shaggy 90’s Pavement / Pixies axis, the band’s always come off much slicker than many of their Burger brethren and better for it. Along with fellow EU garage diggers Death by Unga Bunga they’re ushering in a hard hankering over here for some big, crisp pop that worms its way into your head for days. Pick up that EP below. There are very few reasons not to. Hopin’ this leads to an album announcement on the horizon.

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Death By Unga Bunga “Tell Me Why”

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

Clean running garage from Norwegians Death by Unga Bunga. The band runs through the full gamut of 60’s flecked, power knocked, charged up garage pop and they do it quite well, lodging more than their fair share of hooks in your head in the process. Its been a while since they’ve had an album proper so this two tracker (six if you grab it digitally) will have to tide the world over until a new one is on the way. The bonus cuts on the longer version all simmer with similarly jangled and bouncy beats. There’s a distinct lack of grit here but not all garage needs to be gnarled and wrapped in shredded denim. Every once in a while the sun beams cracking through the Northern European clouds should be enough to make you smile. Plenty to love here.

Listen:


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Tijuana Panthers – “Set Forth”

by on ·Videos

Ok admittedly this has been a quiet week around the Raven, and apologies for that. It’s been rather busy elsewhere, but when something great comes along, priorities must be given. Tijuana Panthers last album, Wayne Interest was a favorite around here and its great news that there’s a new one out today. Poster hits the shelves imminently but to herald it, the band have an awesome new video that’s inspired by 80s claymation classics like Penny Cartoons, California Raisins and Gumby. Being somewhat of a fan of the arduous task that is claymation, I can’t resist this combo. Check it out above.

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The Hussy

by on ·New Albums, Reviews

There were few albums that sparked as much joy around here as The Hussy’s Pagan Hiss from 2013. The album took your standard, work-a-day garage rock palette and injected a looseness and skewed pop playfulness to it that bordered on infectious. On their third album, the Wisconsin duo spit-polish the push/pull of their pop dynamic even further. Focusing on a heavier guitar sound and incorporating violin, lap steel and a barrage of effects pedals, the album marks a turn of the duo’s already bubbly songs into a headrush of fizzing hooks. Buzzsaw cascades of sound one minute and the next they blow the dust away to lean back into an orchestral tinged weeper. Its definitely the sound of a band finding footing and slotting themselves up nicely with some of their other ambitiously minded peers like Ty and Mikal who’ve taken those garage instincts and pop mindset and let the screen blow wide, making grander statements than anyone ever really expected of them.



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