Beluga Pet 7” Selfreleased
Garagey stuff outta New York, don’t really like the bandname – what is a beluga anyway? – but the music was actually pretty decent. Nothing fancy or special just okay but still kinda nice, like an updated Fleshtones with female vocals maybe, I don’t know. It’s midtempo garagerock with a lot of rock and roll. [TS]
Greg Cartwright Live at the circle a LP + 7” Dusty Medical Records
Seems to have been a pretty magical show. Wish I had been there. The songs he has been writing for the last 15 years or so are really something else. This has Greg (of Oblivians/Compulsive Gamblers/Reigning Sound and Deadly Snakes/Detroit Cobras as well) performing some of the best songs he’s written by his lonesome up in Milwaukee. Reptile style, Stop and think it over, Bad man, Live the life, Drowning, Better man than me, Sour and vicious man…. all of these songs are fucking awe-inspiring! Great sound, intimate and clear. It’s actually nice that it’s live, makes it come..I don’t know.. alive somehow. On top of this great LP comes a single with Greg playing with the Goodnight Loving. Great great great of course. You owe it to yourself to get this. [TS]
Cococoma Things are not all right LP Goner Records
New platter from these Chicagoans who really deserve their due. Great rock and roll, catchy and wild. Great mix of 60’s style sounds and modern style garagepunk. This one’s got its fair share of hits, seems like all of the songs are likely to get stuck in the back of your head for days when listening to this. Great stuff. [TS]
Donald Thompson Bite my ass 7” Surfin’ki/Tornado Ride Records
Wild, heavy punkrock from Italy. Wild and energetic but a bit too much action and rock for my tastebuds. If that sounds like something you’d like then by all means check this band out cause they seem nice and it’s wild. [TS]
Hunches Home Alone 5 LP In the red records
Don’t really know where these songs originated, if it’s old stuff or outtakes from the final album. The a-side has some songs recorded by different guys. It’s good though, kinda demo-sounding, but good stuff. Kind of a mix of harder and softer and punkier and weirder/arty songs. The b-side is a live John Peel-session. Pretty cool sounding. I’d say this is a must for any Hunches fan. [TS]
Hunx & his Punx Good kisser 7” You don’t like rock n roll 7” Teardrops on my telephone 7” Gay singles cassette Bachelor Records Rob’s House Records Shattered Records Burger Records
Hunx “You don’t like rock and roll” is such a fucking hit! The Ramones would be proud. ”Teardrops..” isn’t as good, mellow and soft but nice. ”Good kisser” and ”Cruisin” are both good but not reaching the heights of “You don’t..”. The “Gay Singles” tape collects all their out of print singles and adds “Do the make-up” from an upcoming comp. Haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet as my tapeplayer is hidden somewhere in the basement. They keep it simple, fun and writes a bunch of hits. It can’t go anywhere but up. [TS]
Intelligence Boys Annoy 12” EP (ITR) Fake Surfers LP (ITR)
The lowdown on the Intelligence for the last year or so, and this is by no means complete. They’ve been productive to say the least. “Boys annoy” is the mailorder-only EP and it’s pretty cool, gritty and noisy but with catchy songs. “Fake Surfers” is the newest fullenght on ITR, they’ve got at least one more LP out by now on Born Bad. “Fake Surfers” I’ve been having a little more trouble getting into, it’s got some trademark catchy stuff but it’s got some noisy weird stuff that makes it harder to get into. No surprise really as we’re talking about the Intelligence though. Getting more and more into this for every spin. This will prolly be as great as the last one when I’m done. [TS]
Langhorne Slim & the War Eagles Cinderella 7” Wild Honey
7”Recorded byt Mojomatt of the Mojomatics and released by the loveable folks at Wild Honey who also put out the latest Goodnight Loving LP. This is way folky but I like it better that I thought I would. Pretty catchy and nice. The vocals are a bit too whiny and I think I would have a preferred a dirtier sound but otherwise I’d say this could be a hit. [TS]
Lover! No dreams, please 12” EP Big Legal Mess
A bit of a departure for Lover! This is their tribute to american rock. Without straying very far from the patented Lover!-sound this record sounds like Creedence, Kiss, Led Zep, Flaming Groovies.. I’m not that up to date on how those bands sounds but in my ears this is what they should have sounded like. This is great! Very american, very crispy sounding and very panoramic for lack of a better word. It sounds big and epic. Listened to this for the first time on the road in the US and it couldn’t have been a better fit. Car-driving music. I like it! [TS]
Oblivians Barristers Ninetyfive LP In the red records
Mailorder-only release from ITR. Pretty cool, great sound and a good and kinda weird selection of songs that you might not have heard them do before. Like covers of the Monks and Demolition Doll Rods for instance. Cool. The Oblivs already has a few great live albums out there so this might not be essential in any way, it’s still cool for die hard fans and the weird song selection makes it even more fun. [TS]
Revelators Let a poor boy ride LP Crypt Records
Whoa, it’s the 90’s again, Oblivians live record and now the Revelators long lost second album finally out on Crypt. And it’s a good ‘un too boot. Had this come out ten years ago I’m pretty sure it would have cemented the Revelators as one of thee garagebands of the late 90’s but oh well, shit happens and the band broke up anyway. They’ve got Bill Randt from the New Bomb Turks playing drums on this and that shines through as this really sounds like a mix of the first Revelators and early NBT-punkrock. And it’s a cool mix, it sounds a bit dated maybe but this sure holds up. Great songs, cool sound and a driving beat. Nice. I’d say get this. [TS]
v/a – Goodbye New York, Hello New Orleans LP Hussard Records
Some good ole-fashioned rhyhtm’n’blues from the cool Hussard label. Nothing spectacular about it – just great all the way through. I don’t recognize a single name from comps so chances are you haven’t heard this shit before and while there might be better comps to start out with, not a lot of them are on vinyl. So me, I’m loving it. [TS]