New


THE YOUNG VEINS Take A Vacation One Haven Music CD www.onehavenmusic.com


The Young Veins are a, ahem, young LA quintet who distil any number of ’60s influences into 2010 with a modern indie-rock sound – sparkling melodies,


harmonies and the smooth, tune-filled lead vocals of Ryan Ross. The opening track, ‘Change’, is absolutely


brilliant, filled with descending chords and lots of psychedelic jangle over a Bo Diddley shuffle. The Spectorian, kinda-Beach Boys-y ‘Cape Town’ is wonderful as well. ‘The Other Girl’ calls to mind a sound at a time and place when The Beatles recorded ‘Another Girl’, and ‘Dangerous Blues’ is anything but, as it’s a nicely sweet ballad. The boys are touring with Rooney this summer,


so if they come to your town go and see them and, in the meantime, picking up this fine CD. David Bash


THE YUM YUMS ...Whatever Rhymes With Baby House Of Rock CD www.house-of-rock.no


Back in 1993, the superb Norwegian garage band The Cosmic Dropouts imploded in a hail of fuzz and from the fallout burst powerpoppers The Yum Yums led by Morten


Henriksen, the former’s guitarist/songwriter. Since then, the group have been “kicking ass and chewing bubblegum” – to paraphrase the first line on The Who/Ramones-inspired opener ‘I Wanna Be The One’.


Originally released in 2008, ...Whatever is the


five-piece’s third album and has been spruced up with four tracks re-recorded at Hitsville. What you’re left with are 12 melodic speedballs propelled along by Henriksen’s nasal pop-punk pipes, meaty power chords, muscle-beach surf harmonies, carnivalesque keys and vigorous handclapping with additional castanets. Alan Brown


UNDERTHECOVERS Time to dust off the homage-o-meter! ________________________________


LOVE MESSENGERS We Said! We Said! Soundhawk CD www.soundhawkrecords.com


Covers albums, eh? Curious beasts the lot of ’em – teetering on the abyss that separates gospel-spreading goodness from muse- free masturbation; life-


affirming testaments to the salvation of pop music from the final resting place of the creatively spent. Should you further narrow your targets to purely the ’60s and ’70s, then again into the realms of mostly obscure garage, psych and other Shindig!- friendly cross-breeds, you better start upping your game fast – essentially you’re now making music for the kind of record collector/rock historian/ borderline Asperger’s cases who make regular nerds feel like Mary Poppins. Personally I have rather a soft spot for The


Liquor Giants’ Something Special For The Kids but could never stand Bowie’s Pin Ups. Finland’s Love Messengers bravely tackle the


likes of Wimple Winch’s ‘Save My Soul’, The Remains’ ‘Don’t Look Back’, Thane Russell’s ‘Security’, Cuby & The Blizzards’ ‘Your Body Not Your Soul’ and other gems in the style of a middle-aged bar band, which is what they are. Unfortunately, the misheard lyrics, generic “rock” production and excruciating track-by-track notes tip this one squarely into the abyss. Andy Morten


MONDO TOPLESS Freaking Out Get Hip CD www.gethip.com


Philadelphia’s Mondo Topless have been churning out no- nonsense garage-rock records since before most of today’s snot merchants were out of


short trousers and their Nuggets meets Stooges 70


approach has barely wavered one degree. Freaking Out is their fifth LP and it’s a covers


album. They’ve covered plenty of songs in the past but this time they would seem to have made a concerted effort to fuck with the formula just a little bit. Consequently as well as frantic dashes through such garage cornerstones as The Twilighters’ ‘Nothing Can Bring Me Down’, The Electric Prunes’ ‘Get Me To The World On Time’ and the Charlie Starr/Miki Dallon/Banana Splits workhorse ‘Gonna Find Me A Cave’, they also wantonly point their Vox Continental at Cream’s ‘SWLABR’, The Mono Men’s ‘Mystery Girl’ and Sonic’s Rendezvous Band’s‘Asteroid B-612’ with surprisingly satisfying results. Andy Morten


WRECKLESS ERIC & AMY RIGBY Two-Way Family Favourites Southern Domestic CD www.amyrigby.com


Following 2008’s excellent self-titled debut – a multi-layered masterclass of sampled sounds, ravaged guitars and lysergic bubblegum pop – Wreckless Eric,


the man US immigration described as “an alien of extraordinary ability” –and his better half, country-pop songstress Amy Rigby, commit their singular touch to an eclectic collection of covers. Named after the long-running BBC radio request


programme, Eric & Amy deliver hauntingly emotive readings of such songs as Jackie DeShannon’s ‘Put A Little Love In Your Heart’, Tom Petty’s ‘Walls’ and The Byrds’ ‘The Ballad Of Easy Rider’, while Eric merrily saunters into a spacey Joe Meekesque soundscape on ‘Living Next Door To Alice’, adding a fresh dimension to Smokie’s tired hit. Best of all is the beautiful, stripped-down


reworking of ABBA’s ‘Fernando’ and the resurrection of lost 1976 Stiff single ‘Silver Shirt’ by Nottingham’s Plummet Airlines – played straight here by their former label-mate. Alan Brown


45s


UMUT ADAN Gülerler Bize/Beni Seçtigin Bu Yerde Sillyboy


www.myspace.com/umutadan This, the debut single by Istanbul-born Italian resident Umut Adan, is a mighty Turkish psych excursion sounding straight out of the ’70s. ‘Gülerler Bize’ is


especially frenzied, a switched-on dancefloor filler right from the get-go, all heavy beats and hair- flailing progressive psychedelia. ‘Beni Seçtigin Bu Yerde’, by contrast, might not get the party started but is an authentic splash of almost space-rock, Turkish style. Perhaps that’s not too surprising when you find out this 7” has been produced by Marco Fasolo of Jennifer Gentle. If there’s a weak link across the two sides, it’s Adan’s vocals, which don’t really reach the power of the clanging music. Jeanette Leech


ATOMIC SUPLEX/THEE BAT Split EP Swamp Fiction


www.swampfiction.com


The artwork on this split single contains the clichéd garage-rock obsessions of zombies, B-movies and leather, leading this reviewer to stifle a yawn before he’d


even dropped the needle. Not the best start. UK’sAtomic Suplex play a familiar brand of in-


the-red overdriven garage-rock that wins extra kudos for the horn blasts that appear unexpectedly during the first track. Unfortunately it’s more or less totally tuneless to my ears, though played with an endearing abandon. Thee Bat from Japan are equally as uncompromising though have at least gone to the bother of writing a riff and a hook or two on opener ‘Bats L.U.V.’ The cover of ‘Willie The Wild One’ is impressive in execution and proves they know their way around a garage-rock obscurity. A good fun single though a full album of this


stuff would test the patience somewhat. Austin Matthews


TIMMY’S ORGANISM I’m On A Hunt For You THE HALF RATS For The Sake of Love KING LOUIE’S MISSING ORNAMENTS Black Rainbow All Douche Master


www.myspace.com/douchemasterrecords Plundering rock ’n’ roll’s golden past with a measure of calculated insouciance, these three singles are catchy as hell and twice as infectious. Timmy’s Organism deliver


a neat line in New York punk circa 1976, invoking the spirits of Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers and The Dead Boys on ‘I’m On A Hunt For You’, with a bit of Damned thrown in on the B-side for good measure. Next up are The Half Rats – the pick of the


bunch here – who delve further back into rock ’n’ roll’s greasy past for inspiration with ‘For The Sake of Love’ – a great little ’60s garage/doo-wop number. Imagine Dion & The Belmonts and Joey Ramone colliding with The Shangri-La’s cosying up to Johnny Thunders (yeah, him again!).


King Louie’s Missing Ornaments’ ‘Black


Rainbow’, on the other hand, owes as much of a debt to any number of latter day indie guitar bands as it does to late ’70s new wave/pop-punk, but it’s a real grower. Rich Deakin


VIBRAVOID What Colour Is Pink? Fruits de Mer EP www.fruitsdemerrecords.com Vox-fixated psych-droners auf Deutschland attempt three pieces from the Floyd’s immediately post- Syd songbook. Choosing ‘Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’, ‘Let


There Be More Light’ and the mercurial sound collage of ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets’ is both brave and bold. They aren’t averse to adding little textures of


their own either, to aid the creative process and in doing so have realised quite an authentic groove. The first two work better for me, personally, and, perhaps somewhat pedantically, I believe the vocal on ‘…Light’ could’ve benefitted from a higher placing in the mix. Still a fine effort from a label becoming


renowned for its recreation of all things psychedelic. Lenny Helsing


THE WASHINGTON RAYS Junk Free And Single Acrylic Mink 10” EP


www.myspace.com/washingtonrays Stoke Newington’s finest, The Washington Rays, display a variety of ’60s influences in their excellent live shows, which are reflected on this record.


‘Sun Fell From The Sky’, sung by Fabio


D’Agostino, is a strong and joyful pop-psych tune with sitar,Vox Continental organ and soaring backing vocals. The three other songs, sung by Linda McDonald Cairns, are slower and quieter. ‘Think Of Me’ is a contemplative acoustic folk tune. The highlight is ‘She Doesn’t Love You’, a mournful, well-arranged love song with cello. Phil Suggitt


THE YOUNG SINCLAIRS We Spoke Our Minds Planting Seeds


www.plantingseedsrecords.com Hell, yeah! At Shindig! Towers we never slouch in our search for hip new things, and with Virginia’s The Young Sinclairs we have found our latest “shout about” discovery!


Their We Spoke Our Minds EP features four chiming songs of prime mid-60s folk-rock-going- into-psych perfection. No bull, these guys have it in spades and rather than adding dull late ’80s drone-rock vibes and singing too quietly – as so many new contenders unfortunately do – The Young Sinclairs take the vibe of garage acts influenced by The Byrds and make it their own. In an era when new bands often sound


confused, The Young Sinclairs really do know what they are doing, mining that wonderful old source material for the benefit of us all. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


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