Oh shit. Punk rock meets 60s surf rock and is then compressed into lo-fi obscurity. That’s what you get with Guantanamo Baywatch. No joke. Their new album, Chest Crawl, pairs more accessible instrumental tracks like “Barbacoa” and “Massage My Taj Mahal” (I nominate for best song title of the year) with those containing vocals. Read More »Guantanamo Baywatch: Surf Rock, Elvis, and Raunchy Punk
Mind Spiders are a bit out there, with wild synth-based music that conjoins 60s pop sensibilities with heavy late 70s garage rock. Their video for “Wait For Us” is similarly out there, the premise being “A reclusive man sends a distress beacon to catch his ticket off an abandoned planet”. Featuring a two-minute drone intro by Mark Ryan (who also stars in the band and in the film as “Spaceman 1”) before launching into the song. It’s definitely worth a watch and has a nice little twist toward the end that should not be all that surprising given the synopsis.
Read More »Mind Spiders: Wait For Us (Video) 
With The Shins stripped down to James Mercer, Dave Hernandez has been free to pursue other projects. And pursue he did; the new band is called Little Cuts and it’s a bit louder than his previous band. A little garage rock, a little punk, and definitely up a notch in terms of volume. It’s a bit of a return for Hernandez to the noisier side of music; that which can also be found in former band Scared of Chaka. Read More »Little Cuts: Plastic Disaster [Single Review]
“Television Youth” blends power pop, garage rock and fuzzy punk for a fun — playful, even — sound that reminds me a bit of the early works by The Thermals. The band is Sonic Avenues, the latest addition to Dirtnap Records. They are four Montreal natives (you can just barely hear that French Canadian accent in the vocals… just) that produce loud, raucous, exhilarating music that simply begs to be heard. Read More »Sonic Avenues: Television Youth MP3
Rock music should be fun, so why is so much of it not? Bad Sports know this and they’re out to teach bad bands a lesson. “Teenage Girls” rubs it in those bands’ faces a bit, and Bad Sports know this. It may, in fact, be a reason they selected this particular moniker. Their style of pop-influenced garage-based punk is most welcome. Read More »Bad Sports: Teenage Girls (MP3)
