Cloud Nothings: "Psychic Trauma"

"Psychic Trauma" doesn't sound like anything you haven't already heard, but that's primarily because the component sounds are so familiar: garage rock, noise... and post-punk? You don't see the latter thrown into the mix that often, at least not successfully, but damned if Cloud Nothings don't pull it off. I'm a root-for-the-underdog kinda guy so I'm not necessarily pulling for Here and Nowhere Else to come off as a top 10 album at the end of 2014 - Christ knows they earned a lifetime's supply of accolades for 2012's (admittedly glorious) Attack on Memory - but it's good to hear the band haven't lost a step nonetheless.

The Coathangers: "Follow Me"

Garage punk - done well - is a style that never entirely goes out of style, though it obviously ebbs and flows as oversaturation dictates. Well, shit, The Coathangers happen to be from Atlanta, home of OG garage punkers the Black Lips, so they're fighting an uphill battle within their own local scene, let alone an international one.

Fortunately they distinguish themselves by employing those choppy, reed-thin 80's riffs rather than laying on the overdrive and fuzz tones. It'll do.

[EDIT 2/26/14: well that was quick... updating with the official music video, featuring Mastodon for some insane reason]:

Hooded Fang: "Graves"

Ty Segall would be proud to have written "Graves", a garage stomp by Toronto act Hooded Fang. The 60's production values are there, the distant refrain on the chorus... gold star on each band member's forehead.

The band's upcoming album, confusingly spelled Gravez, is out May 27 on Full Time Hobby.

Bass Drum of Death: "Shattered Me"

A year to the month since we last talked about Bass Drum of Death, and even then it was just a split 7"; we've actually been waiting two years since GB City, their last full length, and it'll be a couple more months before Bass Drum of Death the album is out on Innovative Leisure. I ain't mad at 'em. In an era when you pump out half-realized songs every few weeks just to keep your name in the blogs it's nice to see a band put time in, really woodshed that material. "Shattered Me" may sound effortless, but it took a lot of work to get it that way.

The Men: "I Saw Her Face"

That's that old Neil Young shit right there. Or new Neil Young shit, sounds like the guitar line could have been lifted straight off Shakey's last album. Funny thing is The Men don't typically trade in proto-grunge classic rock, but their album New Moon was released recently on Sacred Bones, and there's something about being on that label that brings out the fuzzy acid psych in everyone. Nonetheless, this song is a standout anomaly on an album that largely sounds nothing like this.

Hanni El Khatib: "Family"

Nothing says family like riding the back roads in tighty whities with topless women and getting it on atop the mountainside. It's the way John Wayne woulda done it.

The Invisible Hand: "Psychic Cat"

When I think Virginia I think Lamb of God and that's about it. The Invisible Hand are trying to change all that with the bubblegum garage of "Psychic Cat". The band members have a pleasantly non-trendy look about them while pounding out some convincing if lightweight power pop, so I'm naturally inclined to be on their side.

Get their Steely Dan-referencing Aja EP via Funny/Not Funny Records.
(via Stereogum):

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: "Muckraker"

Garage rock is one of those things that spent a good chunk of the late 70s/early 80s dominating punk rock before going largely dormant by the mid-80s, slumbering Cthulu-like deep beneath the surface world for years until it made a resounding comeback around the turn of the millennium with The Strokes, White Stripes, Hives, etc. Since then it's never been in any danger of going away, particularly in Australia, which now blesses us with the amazingly named King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. 12 Bar Bruise was self released on the band's own Flightless label back on September 7, but WKMR has been doing a lot of pre-holiday drinking over the last 90 days so we seem to have overlooked it up until now.

Dirty Ghosts: "Katana Rock"

Score another one for the SF modern psych scene. Dirty Ghosts put a bit of an electro spin on their acid tinged garage rock, but all that regional competition seems to have helped hone their songcraft. "Katana Rock" is pretty immediate - are hack journalists still (over)using the term "bracing" these days? - which is kind of ironic, since the album (Metal Moon) has been out since February and we're just now getting visuals.

Nice Face: "You're So Dramatic"

I refuse to link to a Myspace page. I can't exactly explain why. I certainly have no allegiance to Facebook; I'm actually kind of rooting for Google+ to dethrone their ass, but I'm glad I don't have money riding on it.

No, I think my antagonism toward Myspace is the kind that an Eskimo would feel if they put a decrepit grandparent out on an ice floe and the grandparent had the indecency to paddle their way back. No, dude, we thought long and hard about what we were doing before we stuck your ass out on that ice floe. Don't be trying to make a cheesy comeback. You're just embarrassing yourself here.

Nice Face have a Facebook page is I guess what I'm getting at here.

Black Bananas: "My House"

Eschewing the usual found footage video thing to lens their own scattered thematic aesthetic, Black Bananas give you low riders, Mardi Gras Indians and hula hoops. If you can't manage a balanced diet out of those three ingredients your life is probably already fucked.

Bass Drum of Death: "I Wanna Be Forgotten"

I could have swore Bass Drum of Death was just in Austin for SXSW - I missed them if so - but damned if they aren't balls deep in tour dates through the summer, including an Austin engagement at the Mohawk. It's been a full year since GB City came out so to sweeten the pot the band have recorded a split 7" with tour mates DZ Deathrays. The BDoD contribution to that tour only release doesn't disappoint and shan't soon be forg... ah, fuck the easy puns:

Japandroids: "The House That Heaven Built"

It's amazing how closely a band can hew to anthemic, shout along choruses and Class of 77 power chords without falling prey to that slippery slope that is shitty modern pop punk. "The House That Heaven Built" is Jimmy Eat World for the adult set, a rousing garage romp with endless hooks and fuck you pomp. Is it any coincidence their upcoming album is called Celebration Rock?

[UPDATE 8/13/12: added music video]:

Grinderman: "Hyper Worm Tamer" [U.N.K.L.E. Remix]

An album once described by band member Warren Ellis as "stoner rock meets Sly Stone via Amon Duul" would not seem to require a remix album - and truthfully it doesn't - but several producers have managed to enhance the fuzz / psych quotient through electronics without trying to make the underlying song too clubby. U.N.K.L.E. do perhaps the best job of this, the A Place To Bury Strangers mix of this same track going too far into industrial dance territory. Still, there's debatable merit to the release of Grinderman 2 RMX, which is largely just a collection of b-sides from individual singles... not sure how much point there is to that in the iTunes era, but maybe ol' man Cave is trying to buy himself some down time before getting the Bad Seeds back into the studio.

Black Lips: "Raw Meat"

Hey, dude from The Wire!  Yup, but that's not the only thing this vid has going for it.  In addition to a tremendous garage rock tune - brevity like a muhfucka - the quartet that is Black Lips get to play Bad Lieutenant all up in this bitch.


Black Lips - "Raw Meat" from Urban Outfitters on Vimeo.

Total Control: "Stonehenge"

Australia has always been synonymous with snarling, prehistoric garage punk (among other things, of course).  Total Control deliver on that promise, the spastic visuals in the video for "Stonehenge" perfectly complementing the herky, jerky rhythm.  Henge Beat is their first album, and according to a Mess + Noise review expect to hear a lot of synthpop influences as well.  Not so much on this track, however.

Total Control - Stonehenge from Timothy Hillier on Vimeo.

Turf War: "Cheers to the Years"

We have here a pretty green southern rock-tinged garage band from Atlanta, slugging it away and making a name for themselves opening for Black Lips/Vivian Girls.  "Cheers to the Years" was premiered recently on Aquarium Drunkard and is the first single off September's Years of Living Dangerously.  Holla.


Turf War-Cheers To The Years by Old Flame Records

1990: "Pocahontas Was Her Name", Thee Headcoats

Speaking of one Billy Childish:

1990: "Half Man Half Boy", Thee Hypnotics

Not everything Thee Hypnotics did reveled in 60s garage rock filth to this extent, but twenty years later "Half Man Half Boy" is still one of the greatest neo-garage tunes to not have the name Billy Childish associated with it.