Shake Appeal is a column that highlights new garage and garage-adjacent releases. In the 50th installment, Evan Minsker discusses the latest from MAMA, Wet Blankets, Lilith Velkor, Fa Bonx, and Exhaustion.
MAMA: Speed Trap [Postcaring]
Power pop means so many things that at this point, the term is practically meaningless. When it shows up in this column, it often means it's something that recalls Stiff Records or the Exploding Hearts or Dwight Twilley. Chicago's MAMA, however, bring to mind a facet of the genre that was a lot more radio-friendly in the late 1970s—stuff made by bands like the Knack and Thin Lizzy. On Speed Trap, they don't hold back on the cowbell. Their drummer is showy and unrelenting, their guitar sound is huge, and their vocals have this confident breathiness. In five short songs, they make an EP that's ready to be blasted on the highway.
Wet Blankets: Hex Education Hour EP [Goodbye Boozy]
Throughout 2014, I've written about Ausmuteants several times. They've offered a lot of opportunities to do that—they've had albums reissued, singles released, and their new album just came out this month. It seems important, then, to make note of another very good band from Geelong, Australia. They're called Wet Blankets, and their second single on the consistently great 7" label Goodbye Boozy proves that they're a band you should keep an eye on. These are loud, fast, aggressive punk songs—none of them lasting much longer than 60 seconds. It's worth hunting down their other 7", too.
Lilith Velkor: Lone [Starcleaner]
Lilith Velkor are a band of Brooklyn punks whose album Lone is out this week via Shellshag's label Starcleaner. Much of the album recalls work of post-hardcore bands like Jawbox or Squirrel Bait—on "I Don't Care", for example, they definitely emphasize melody in their singing and guitar lines in favor of fuzz or screaming. On songs like "Aggro-Culture", however, they bring to mind more muscular bands like Wipers. They also get angrily, aggressively gross: "And I'm drowning, yes I'm swimming, and I bleeeeed in this sea of shit."
Fa Bonx: "Tramps Jamble" [What's Your Rupture?]
Earlier this year, What's Your Rupture?released a 7" by an unknown band called Fa Bonx. They've got another one coming out this year called "49 Stick" that features the song below, "Tramps Jamble". According to the label, they're a glam rock family band—two brothers and their mom on saxophone—who haven't played live yet and have written four songs to date. So far, so good, Fa Bonx. (Learn more about the band here.)
Exhaustion: Biker [Aarght]
Biker is not a garage rock album—it's a record that only feels appropriate here because it loosely fits in that "garage-adjacent" category. (The band features members of Ooga Boogas and Deaf Wish; the album's out on Aarght.) The Melbourne band Exhaustion are pummelers, really. They make dark, caveman psychedelia that more closely resembles records by Dirty Three or Michael Gira than something from Goner. They've got motorik grooves that drive long, spaced out songs. It's a dense record, for sure—one where gentle piano parts are nestled beneath ringing, aggressive guitars. On "Hard Left", there's an ebb and flow between "calm" and "storm", but elsewhere, they don't back away from their belligerent churn ("Lonely Cars"). It's out this month and definitely worth checking out.