Within garage rock circles, the Len Price 3 have become a hugely popular fixture. Between their high energy live shows and some superb recorded works, the Medway lads have continually given the UK scene a kick up the arse. Despite not being the most prolific act in terms of studio work, they’ve been remarkably consistent, and the best bits of 2022’s ‘Ip Dip Do’ and 2023’s ‘Chinese Burn’ are every bit as powerful as the band’s earliest works. With such a high quality threshold, it’s no wonder that, despite hailing from a corner of Britain that isn’t exactly renowned for its musical heritage or wealth of live venues – it seems to have always been Billy Childish against the world – the LP3 managed to attract the attention of the Wicked Cool label in the US.
Tag Archives: garage rock
Real Gone Presents: A Boston Round-Up, June 2025
Over the previous couple of months, the submissions for the popular Real Gone Singles Bar have been more than plentiful. It’s actually got to the point where we’re getting so much good stuff, it’s been almost impossible to keep on top of it all. When compiling a recent column, it came to our attention that we’d had a huge amount of submissions from Boston based bands. Since we were massive fans of albums produced by Paul Q. Kolderie & Sean Slade at Fort Apache back in the 90s and, in more recent times, our site has received regular support from a few Boston based bands, PR companies, labels – including the sadly missed Red On Red Records – it seemed to make sense to take some of these great tracks and highlight them in a feature of their own. The Singles Bar will continue as normal, of course…but this bunch of tracks, shared as a selection in its own right, features some great material. Please join us in giving a hearty shout out to a great city with a thriving music scene… As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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TEENAGE FRAMES – Fighting Words / Factory Man
At the time of this release, Teenage Frames have been part of the garage rock underground for the better part of three decades. Their 2024 long player ‘Everything Has Led To This’ shows the work of a band who’ve really not lost their punch over time. If anything, the now veteran band have grown as songwriters, with tunes like ‘Brain Fever’ and ‘Please Don’t Be Stupid Tonight’ being on a par with peak Real Kids material from ‘77, ‘Back To The Beat’ sharing a pleasing, 60s tinged brand of power pop and, an album standout, ‘I Wish I Didn’t Know About You’ balancing the usual wall of guitars with a cheeky keyboard riff that tips the hat to skinny tie new wave bands from ’81. With fourteen catchy numbers packed into a little over thirty five minutes, the album is an old school, vinyl friendly affair that should appeal to garage rock fans everywhere.
THE DRY RETCH – Straight Outta Cuba!
It’s rather common for musical artists to lighten up as the years pass, but this is to be expected with age. It’s often impossible to cling onto the anger of youth. Just ask Paul Weller or James Dean Bradfield. Even Henry Rollins sounded like a pale imitation of himself on the Rollins Band’s disappointingly lightweight swansong ‘Nice’ in 2001. There are notable exceptions, of course: the first couple of OFF! albums showcase a punk “retirement age” Keith Morris with as much fire as he had in his Black Flag days, and Slayer’s ‘Repentless’ from 2015 attacks a huge amount of energy and absolute fury, resulting in their best work for a quarter of a century. It could even rank within their top five best albums ever.
Over twenty years on from the release of their ‘Columbus Was Wrong…’ album, The Dry Retch prove to be another exception to the idea that getting older means a retreat to a safe space. ‘Straight Outta Cuba!’, released in October 2024, captures the Liverpool-based noise-makers in a savage mood, and rightly so, considering the state of the entire world at the time of its recording.
THE LEMON DROP GANG – Leave The World Behind / Let The World Stay
On a couple of singles released in 2023, Tucson’s The Lemon Drop Gang cemented their very retro sound on tracks that melded garage rock with surf, and roughly hewn 60s pop with an obvious love of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. Nobody would ever have called the results perfect, but to expect perfection from a band such as this would be to miss the point, since The Lemon Drop Gang champion a fun aesthetic and they deliver a raw sound that – if you’re into it – can thrill purely because of its imperfections.