Shake Appeal is a column that highlights new garage and garage-adjacent releases. This week, Evan Minsker writes about new EPs from Giorgio Murderer and Las Sultanas, new releases by Melbourne bands Power and the Dacios, and new videos from Chicago's Energy Gown and Oakland's the Shanghais.
Giorgio Murderer: Primitive World EP [Goner]
In case you didn't notice, Buck Biloxi and the Fucks were on a majorhot streak last year. Their records were stripped down and entirely badass. Now Buck has another side project: the synth-minded, amazingly titled Giorgio Murderer. It's not a remarkably varied project—the percussion is uniform and the songs don't go far past the minute mark. Really, the synths are there to add supplemental atmosphere, not to provide an overpowering aesthetic. But everything here is still, at its heart, gnarly. "Nobody likes you," Buck sings, sullen and surly. On the B-side, there's stuff about eating out of the trash. The last couple minutes are just a Troma-style skit where he guns people down who engage him in conversation. Call him Giorgio, call him Buck, it doesn't matter. Just buy all of his records, and probably don't fuck with him.
Power: Promo [Cool Death]
Let's talk about this relatively new trio out of Melbourne called Power, because their first release in the world is a promo cassingle on Cool Death that features the awesome basher below, "Serpent City". What you've got here is a muscular track that implies three members of the Kiss Army (and, in actuality, members of Gutter Gods, Dribble, Soma Coma, Leather Lickers, and Krömosom). These dudes sound indebted to early metal heroes, and as the image that accompanies their tape's Big Cartel page implies, they're fans of the Stooges and Conan the Barbarian, Hawkwind, and Marc Bolan. There's certainly a sense of boogie in their groove here, but also a knack for galloping intimidation. And trust: The other track on this thing rips, too. Power are working on a 7" and an LP, which have just moved way up on my "anticipated records" list.
The Dacios: Monkey's Blood [Homeless]
Keeping on the subject of Melbourne, the scuzz-peddlers at Homeless Records are reissuing the great 2009 LP Monkey's Blood by the Dacios. If you missed this the first time around (like I did), the new pressing offers a fine excuse to check it out. Though Shake Appeal is often a welcome space for bashing-and-ripping rock'n'roll, Monkey's Blood is more complex than the traditional shred-fest. The title track begins sounding like a folk song, spare and quiet. Then, as Linda Johnson's vocals become ragged and powerful, the song kicks into a cathartic roar. Naturally, it's a song with peaks and valleys, which isn't exactly a rarity in this sort of music, but on an album with both nuance and power, it's a quality that sticks out.
Energy Gown/The Shanghais: "Free Dose"/"Sick of You"
Finally, here are two very different videos. The first is from the Chicago psych outfit Energy Gown, whose trippy video by Frank Pollard features one-dimensional illustrations given life by light and movement. "Free Dose" is from their album Evening Mollases, which is out this week.
Meanwhile, Oakland's the Shanghais have shared a new video for their single "Sick of You", which shows the band having a picnic in the park. Of course, some punks come in and stomp their food. The high point of the video: When dude pulls his bass out of a bag of chips. Dan Shaw directs.