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Shake Appeal is a column that highlights new garage and garage-adjacent releases. This time, Evan Minsker looks at new material from Rall Tide, CCR Headcleaner, the Memories, the Yolks, Today'sHits, Black Mekon, and the Red Cords.
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Rall Tide: World Series Hangovers [Gold Tapes]
This column doesn't often feature music that samples string sections or vintage spoken word narration, but then again, moments like those aren't often featured on records with titles like World Series Hangovers. Detroit's Rall Tide counterbalance the quieter stuff, like the bare acoustic intro of "John Wayne's Gun", with chugging guitars and juvenile lyrics. They can rip like Mascis and sing with the nasal confidence of Alec Ounsworth. Gold Tapes sent me this in a homemade box featuring a collage of images—dudes with guns, butterfly wings—beneath the words "Rall Tide." It's a fitting aesthetic for a project in which every sound is collaged around a strong central melody.
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CCR Headcleaner: "Free the Freaks" [Famous Class]
Famous Class are continuing LAMC, their ongoing split 7" series with all proceeds going to the Ariel Panero Memorial Fund. Here's how it works: Famous Class asks the A-side artist to share an unreleased track, then that artist picks one of their favorite artists to provide a track for the B-side. The latest installment features Fuzz doing a Kinks cover, and for the B-side, they've tapped their former tourmates, the San Francisco sludge punks CCR Headcleaner. They've offered up a trudging, somewhat atonal track called "Free the Freaks" that'll make you wonder if you're listening to it on 33 1/3 by accident. They drag their words for a little too long, and everything sounds a little off. Mission accomplished.
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Black Mekon: Stolen Bible 2 [PNKSLM]
Out of England comes Black Mekon, who have delivered Stolen Bible 2, an album of fuzz-fried blues rock. By adding bite to an old American music tradition while remaining nameless and wearing black masks, these two dudes could pass for supporting characters in a Tarantino movie. Their sound rides a similar garage blues vibe that Jack White has been cultivating for years now, and the songs kill. With an oppressive low end and moments that crash and briefly obliterate all other noise, they've got muscle aplenty, and when their vocals transition from "cartoon villain" to "cooing upper register", they find a satisfying balance.
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The Memories / The Yolks / Today'sHits: American Summer EP / "Two Dollars Out the Door" / Sex Boys EP [Randy]
Chicago's Randy Records is ringing in 2014 with, count 'em, three awesome new 7"s. First up is the Memories, the West Coast stoners whose "American Summer" is chill and moon-eyed, as befits the rest of their discography. Then, there's a great new single from the Yolks, who have been relatively quiet since they released their self-titled album back in 2009. Finally, there are new songs from Today'sHits, the fuzz-pop project of Kentucky native James Swanberg. Swanberg has apparently recorded a song per day for over 1,000 days, and the four he offers up on Sex Boys are simple and sweet.
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The Red Cords: Dead Heat EP [PNKSLM]
PNKSLM has been busy—in addition to putting out that Black Mekon LP (above), they also recently put out an EP from another UK outfit, the Red Cords. Today, they've shared the video for EP opener "Punk Eye". It's a track with tons of kinetic energy; appropriately, the video is just the longhair drummer getting pelted with various liquids and powders while wearing a white T-shirt featuring the words "Punk Eye" scrawled across it. By the end, the guy's sopping wet, pounding through the downpour of mystery substances while guitars wail in the background. Oh yeah, and he gets TP'd, feathered, and a pie in the face, too.