Hey, how's it going? Here's another installment of Shake Appeal, Evan Minsker's garage/punk/psychedelic/etc. music round-up. There's a live review, and then there are a lot of new records to talk about. Learn what you should be listening to when you're done listening to the new Sheer Mag 7" for the dozenth time.
The Painted Lady is a bar on a quiet street in Hamtramck, Mich. (right outside of Detroit). It's one of the best rooms in the world to go see rock'n'roll. If you've got a quarter, you can play Ms. Pac-Man or pinball between sets. The jukebox has albums that should be in way more jukeboxes: Nuggets, Hasil Adkins, Blank Generation, Slade, a Stiff Records compilation, Roky Erickson's Evil One, and more. The cheap pierogis they served at the bar were actually good.
On the night of April 8, Timmy's Organism headlined. If a band has "home field advantage" at the Painted Lady, it's a band featuring Timmy Vulgar. The man worked there and served his world famous tacos there. Several records that he wrote and recorded appear in that jukebox. You get it—it's their Cheers or CBGBs or whatever.
Opening the show were Heavy Lids and Buck Biloxi and the Fucks from New Orleans. The band's touring lineups shared members. The Southern boys brought along merch for all their bands, including those that weren't actually playing that night, which means I left with a Die Rötzz 7". There were technical difficulties during their sets—vocals were generally too low and at one point John Henry Kelly broke a bass string. ("Who breaks a bass string," asked Timmy's Organism bassist Jeff Giant. "A fuckin' badass, that's who," replied Buck Biloxi.) But the hiccups didn't matter—it's about the aggression. The Fucks closed with "I Ain't Going to Church", which is probably the best, most base-level "fuck people who think they're better than everyone else" punk song of the past couple years.
But since this was Timmy's hometurf, it was Timmy's show. The audience thrashed around and sang along to the Raw Sewage Roq highlights "Bouncing Boobies" and "Cats on the Moon". It's easy to see why the local crowd would get so excited about this particular show—very few performers seem to ooze an endless supply of charisma like Timmy. He's a rock star, ultra-confident and effortless. He contorts his face while ripping through blistering blues rock tunes. At one point, he delivered a guitar solo with a small firework in his mouth—wincing, he took a couple exaggerated pulls from it like an explosive cartoon blunt.
There were a bunch of new (or at least unrecorded) songs, which coagulated into one big sloppy mass of rock'n'roll. Before the harrowing new song "Hey Eddie", a tribute to his late Clone Defects bandmate "Fast Eddie" Altesleben, he ordered the crowd to hold their drinks in the air. As the show ended, he punched through a box of Fruity Pebbles and whipped it around. For a fleeting moment, the cigarette smoke and stale beer smell was engulfed by the smell of synthetic breakfast fruit. By the time the rainbow-colored dust settled, the show was over. Timmy's Organism may not be the biggest band in the world (or even on In the Red or HoZac Records), but at the Painted Lady, they're kings. Check out theirrecords and go see them when they come to your town.
The label Goodbye Boozy put out singles at a steady rate, and when they come out with new stuff, they tend to announce about five singles at a time by five different bands. Each batch usually has more familiar names like Useless Eaters (more on them in a second), but the best part is discovering a record like "Dieter Caught My Bus" and "TV Suicide" by Geelong, Australia's Wet Blankets. Re-recorded versions of those songs appear on their great debut full-length, Rise of Wet Blankets. Teenaged frontman Zane Gardner has delivered one of the year's best garage punk records thus far. Gardner's brother Billy also plays in Ausmuteants, and the record was tracked by Zak Olsen (Hierophants) and Jake Roberston (Ausmuteants/Hierophants). It's a bunch of 90-second punk songs, and every one of them are excellent. The kid hates school, the kid is seeing suicide on his TV screen, and the kid is packing his 12" with some phenomenal guitar solos. This awesome debut is available in Australia via Anti Fade, in the U.S. via Easter Bilby, and it's streaming on Spotify. Get it.
Gary Wrong Group released a split with Wizzard Sleeve a couple years back that came packaged with a demonic wolf mask. Sometimes, Gary Wrong performs with Quintron's Weather Warlock project—he plays stoner rock jams with a burlap sack over his head. That should give you a decent idea of the animal we're dealing with here—the Alabama band make pagan ritual stoner rock. L'Alabama ò ancora dannata is out on the Italian tape label In the Shit Records. It's animalistic music for heathens, swirling with goblin grunts and maniacal laughter. Where other GWG records are longer or more abstract, these songs have more structure and song lengths that rival punk 45s. This one's proof that small batch sludge rock tapes have the potential for greatness. Don't sleep on it.
Last year, the two surviving Exploding Hearts, Terry Six and King Louie Bankston, started making music together again. Simply billed as Terry and Louie, they picked up where they left off, doing the sort of glam-hued power pop they made together on Guitar Romantic. Their appearance at Gonerfest last year was inherently an emotional thing, if only because of Six's seven-note guitar solo on "Sleeping Aides and Razor Blades". The duo are back following last year's "Lookin' For a Heart" with another one on Six's new label Tuff Break. Once again, they stick to what they're good at—catchy songs about heartache lined with riffs that showcase the Terry Six guitar sound. It hasn't really changed in the past 12 years.
There's been quite the bumper crop of awesome singles compilations recently. Throw Useless Eaters' new one on the pile. The Slovenly comp collects singles and rarities from 2011-2014, and it's more than just a collection of great songs—it's a necessary piece of the band's discography and narrative. It documents Seth Sutton and co.'s many (and successful) tonal shifts over the past few years. There's the Voidoids surf of their 2011 single "Difficult", which is worlds away (though only one year removed) from Sutton's significantly more gnarly (and hi-fi!) Ty Segall collaboration "I Hate the Kids". Compare those to the monster movie paranoia of the 2014 single "Bloody Ripper" and you've got a compilation that shows a band operating with a million ideas. In case you hadn't figured it out at this point, they've got the execution and aggression to pull them all off.
This email comes in, right, and it says that there's a new Angie album coming later this year. It's a good email; this is good news. Angie's Turning is still on rotation, as is Ruined Fortune's self-titled album on HoZac. Her recent records with Straight Arrows and Southern Comfort were great. Both of her Gonerfest sets—one under the name "Angie" and another with Nathan Roche—were excellent. The streets are ready for another Angie album, and Free Agent is out in September via Rice Is Nice/Glen-Livet-A-Gogh. Here's her self-directed video for a ripper called "Out of Age". Here's an interview with Angie from a while back.
Peach Kelli Pop made another Peach Kelli Pop record. That's not meant to be dismissive, it's just the truth—nobody makes pop music that sounds quite like Allie Hanlon's. You can argue that bands sound similar, but her brand of high octane bubblegum pop—rapidfire handclaps, moon-eyed vocal melodies, earworm guitars—is so specifically her own. Bachelor and Burger have released Peach Kelli Pop III, and take heart: She's got another set of gems on her hands. "Shampoo" and "Heart Eyes" rival "Red Leather" as some of her best. There's a cover of the "Sailor Moon" theme song. Grab your dancing shoes and order a pizza—per usual, this one's a party record.
The Splits hail from Helsinki and apparently got their name by merging together the names of two incredible bands: The Spits and the Slits. Heavyweight namesakes aside, their second album (on Dirtnap Records) has big shoes to fill in the band's 2012 debut album. They deliver with some of thei best growls and guitar work on "End Is Near". They deliver when they pick up the pace and let their vocals bite even harder on "Melody". Are you getting it? They deliver. More than just "band play and scream loud and fast," the Splits do those things well, too. They're strong musicians with an album of tightly written and performed material.
Flesh Wounds' In the Mouth is a cassette release—the sort of thing they'll encourage you to pick up at the merch table of one of the shows. The message was made clear between their cut-throat album and Merge 7" (seriously, "Let Me Be Clear" is a jam), there's no such thing as a minor or non-essential Flesh Wounds record. Once again, their latest record offers plenty of proof that the Carrboro-based band are about as ferocious as it gets. They also show some range on "March of the Czars". (They manage to slow down and can apparently sing pretty well when they're not screaming!) It's not their best work, but it's solid. Also, there's a song called "Joy Division Killed My Boner", and going by the rubric which gives high marks to the words "Joy Division killed my boner dead," In the Mouth is a triumph.
Two years ago, on a night just like this one, Homeless Records released an album called Sex Tape by the pummeling Australian howlers Gentlemen. The Japanese label Episode Sounds have three new bludgeoning and relentless Gentlemen songs for you. There's no space to breathe in "Dead Hand"—it's just an unstoppable storm of noise. That phrase, "dead hand", could mean nuclear war, and given the rotting wasteland vibe they cultivate, that makes sense. It could also mean the imposition of the deceased—someone's will stipulating that you have to live under a very strict set of guidelines. You could be losing your free will or maybe your life. Either way, Gentlemen operate with undeniable force. If the Episode Sounds 7" isn't enough for you, they've also got a new one on the Sweden-based label Ken Rock featuring "Gaunt Boys" (below).
More hits:
01 The Shanghais' Pretty Mean and Sick of You tape on Endless Daze collects the Oakland band's two very good, very fun EPs.
02 Nervous Talk, the Vancouver-based garage pop band, have a very strong self-titled album out now on Hosehead/P Trash.
03 Heaters from Grand Rapids keep the psychedelic fire with their latest pair of nuggets, "Mean Green" b/w "Levitate Thigh" on Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records.
04 Brat Kings, the Toronto/Montreal band featuring members of Sonic Avenues and Pow-wows, have a catchy and kinetic new 7" on Hosehead.
05 Japanese trio The Routes do fuzz-slathered surf on their Meant to Be EP on Hidden Volume.