Las Vegas based quartet Trevor and The Joneses care not for fashion. Parts of ‘There Was Lightning’ – their debut LP from 2012 – could have been recorded at the same time as The Stooges’ ‘Fun House’, while also showcasing material that’s clearly channelling a lo-fi equivalent of Neil Young’s ‘Zuma’ with occasional nods to the underground of the late 80s. In theory, this sounds like a disjointed mess…and true enough, it doesn’t sound so special the first time you hear it. After allowing the tunes time to mature and to properly sink in, however, you’ll discover an album celebrates retro rock styles in a huge fashion. …And although the material is varied – drawing influence as it does from over three decades of rock – the band have developed a surprisingly confident style.
Tag Archives: garage rock
THE END MEN – Terms & Conditions
Reappearing at the beginning of 2013 after a brief hiatus, Brooklyn’s End Men made a big statement with their second LP ‘Play With Your Toys’. From that point on, there seemed to be no stopping the blues/garage rock duo, with live shows aplenty following – including a recorded appearance at CXCW – and a quickly released compilation of odds and ends filling the gap until their next studio bookings. Released seemingly weeks after their last recordings, ‘Terms & Conditions’ picks up exactly where you’d expect, with the gravel-voiced Matthew Hendershot weaving tales of woe and drunken forboding while percussionist Livia Ranalli plays by the seat of her pants. With such a quick turnaround of material, are The End Men in danger of burning themselves out? On the basis of their 2015 release, it’s a case of anything but…
SUN VOYAGER – Lazy Daze EP
As the light faded upon the last days of 2014, Brooklyn garage-psych merchants Sun Voyager put their stamp upon the year’s last essential purchase when they dropped a few tracks as part of a split release with label mates The Greasy Hearts. The Hearts’ trashy, Stonesy energy provided the perfect foil for the Voyager’s swirling swamps of sound, and were perhaps more accessible of the two acts, but Sun Voyager’s commitment to deep psyche noise suggested there would be more great music to come from their neighbourhood in the future. ‘Lazy Daze’ (their third EP) presents the band on a bigger scale than ever before, its five numbers bringing fuzzy guitars galore, often coupled with other-worldly vocals that sound as if they’re drifting in from another room.
THE MAD DOCTORS – Snake Oil Superscience
Brooklyn space-psych rockers The Mad Doctors released their EP ‘Fuzz Tonic!’ via Doctor Gone Records in the spring of 2013; its five echo drenched numbers gave an insight into their hybrid sound of garage rock/hard psych and surf music, but its limited recording budget hampered listening enjoyment to a degree. A year on, their first full-length ‘Snake Oil Superscience’ shows a great improvement.
KNUCKLE – This Week’s Been Hell EP
When done right, the two man garage-rock/garage blues set up can be absolutely thrilling. It represents the minimum band configuration to make a noise most effectively. Less distorted than the US’s ¡Vamanos! but more ferocious than the UK’s most excellent Brockley Forest, Huddersfield’s own Knuckle blend garage rock and blues with a touch of stoner groove – as per 2014 breakthrough act Royal Blood, but with an element of DIY sincerity those guys lost by jumping straight in with a major label release. The results on Knuckle’s debut EP, although fairly typical of the genre, are enthralling with a broad range of sounds and styles throughout the six tracks.