Gunslingers were a band who just instinctively knew how to make a ferocious noise. From their inception through to their split in 2012, the band constantly pushed the boundaries of garage rock, garage punk and no wave/rock in the name of their art.
Tag Archives: garage rock
INDONESIAN JUNK – Living In A Nightmare
Since their debut album appeared in 2016, Milwaukee’s Indonesian Junk have remained quite prolific. Following that release they cranked out a new record every year – each one better than the previous – up until the release of ‘Spiderbites’ in 2019. Although still raw, ‘Spiderbites’ contained many of the band’s best songs to date; the CBGB’s inspired garage punk sound they’d been slowly cultivating reached full maturity, and they could legitimately claim to be true successors to bands like New York Dolls and the Dead Boys.
Prior to its release in March 2021, their fourth album proper (not counting the EPs and the excellent rarities comp ‘A Life of Crimes’) attracted a bit of an early buzz among the band and label’s followers. People seemed keen for a strong follow up, but more than that, the promise of a couple of guests immediately seemed to set the album in a position of strength. …And indeed, the lead single, ‘Type of A Girl’ (used wisely to open the album itself) confirmed most people’s hunches that – despite some wobbly beginnings – Indonesian Junk were in top form and had approached the new record much in the same way as ‘Spiderbites’ and that ‘Living In A Nightmare’ would be an album big on hooks.
BEEBE GALLINI – East Side Story EP
Despite being a new band at the time of this release, Beebe Gallini features a few familiar faces from the garage rock scene. Miss Georgia Peach (vox/rhythm guitar) and Travis Ramin (lead guitar/drums) of the Minneapolis band The Short Fuses have joined forces with Strumpet bassist Amy Larson Pearson, but in many ways, this side project is far more than an extension of their previous work. In fact, although first impressions may suggest something more ragged, Beebe Gallini are still broad in appeal. Their five track digital affair ‘East Side Story’ is a fun but ragged affair. Despite any potential roughness, it’s a great showcase for the band in that it shows a massive respect for the past with a couple of top notch covers, and also an optimism for its future with a couple of self-penned rockers that cling onto a similar style. By combining new material and old classics, they truly aim to pull in listeners from far and wide.
Black Pistol Fire share new video for ‘Look Alive’
At the beginning of 2021, Black Pistol Fire released their sixth album ‘Look Alive’. A hugely welcome return for the garage/blues rock duo, it was their most commercial recording to date with a fuller sound drawing more influence from The Black Keys than their previous Jack White obsessions.
THE CHEAP CASSETTES – See Her In Action! EP
Everything about The Cheap Cassettes’ first full length album ‘All Anxious, All The Time’ did, indeed, scream “cheap”. It’s ten songs sounded like old demos and the choice of artwork – complete with basic Microsoft Word style font – really didn’t give the strongest first impression. However, if you were able to make it past those cosmetic flaws, some of the songs suggested a retro band with a big heart and an even bigger gift for delivering a hook.
Their ‘Kiss The Ass of My Heart’ EP – delivered some four years later, via the Rum Bar Records label – presented a marked improvement. The core of the material came with a much better audio quality and in the case of the title track, it almost felt as if you were eavesdropping on a long lost demo from The Knack. From such rough beginnings, it was more than clear that The Cheap Cassettes were a band with great promise…and indeed, the EP gained some really positive – and well deserved – press from various power pop blogs around the globe.