For garage rock fans, New Hampshire’s The Connection are a band that needs no introduction. For everybody else, here’s the skinny: they’re much loved by Little Steven Van Zandt and get regular play on his Underground Garage radio show and they count Andrew Loog Oldham among their many fans. That seal of approval should be enough for the curious to take a listen, but more than that, these are musicians with a pedigree. The hardest working gang in the state, The Connection features Brad Marino (also of the New Trocaderos), Geoff Palmer, Craig Sala and Kris “Fingers” Rodgers (all of whom have served time as members of the Kurt Baker Band and Wimpy and the Madallions). Their music is retro, but often much friendlier on the ear than so many garage rock outfits, since they’re often keen to mix in a hefty dose of power pop, and on ‘Labor of Love’ – their second full-length – they’ve got choruses and musical hooks aplenty…
Tag Archives: retro
DEAD SHED JOKERS – Dead Shed Jokers
Following the release of their debut album in 2013, Welsh hard rockers Dead Shed Jokers were praised by UK’s Classic Rock Magazine and picked out as a band whose star was very much on the ascent. Two years on, their self-titled follow up brings the rock in a hugely unsubtle fashion, mixing heavy blues riffs with a truckload of distortion, a post-grungy attitude towards the more angular and a frightening amount of bravado.
HEYROCCO – Teenage Movie Soundtrack
Formed in South Carolina, Heyrocco are a three-piece band that brings various slacker rock elements and light grunge alive on their debut release ‘Teenage Movie Soundtrack’. Comprising just nine songs, the album is structured in a way that ensures the tunes fly past in a breezy, carefree manner; the arrangements may have a sloppiness in places – a defiantly distorted edge to the guitars and a few of the vocals are inherently wobbly – but it’s a disc that appears filler-free. Provided, that is, you like their chosen style.
THE RAVYNS – History Repeats Itself
The Ravyns were a power pop band from Baltimore arguably best known for their single ‘Raised on the Radio’ featured in the Cameron Crowe written movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High in 1982. A full album was released a year later, but further success eluded the band. Following their split, frontman Kyf Brewer achieved further cult success as a member of hard rock troupe Company of Wolves before venturing on to a hugely overlooked solo career.
CHANEL SAMSON – The Beginning EP
With her live act, The Chanel Samson Circus, Ms Samson blends music and burlesque visuals, juggling, glitter and a whole other bunch of stuff besides. On record, you can’t experience most of her act, obviously, so anything that may be winning over her audiences is largely lost on this EP. So, without the bells and whistles, what do we have? A bunch of pop-rock songs with retro elements that are (mostly) well arranged…with fabulous horns and occasional chunky guitars creating a relatively big sound.