Reviews

Wild Honey

Bee Bee Sea It’s All About the Music EP

Celebrating a decade of making music together, this trio, that formed right out of high school, is here with their It’s All About The Music EP. Coming from the small town of Castel Goffredo in Northern Italy, the band’s motto is “When there’s no good shit around you, better form a band!” which, as a small-town resident myself, I really appreciate. With a love for classic ’60s rock, they started their career with covers of the WHO, the ROLLING STONES, and the BEATLES—even paying homage to the Revolver artwork on their highly-anticipated 2020 Day Tripper LP (not to mention the album title). But far from covers they have come—with four LPs in their pocket and a smattering of EPs and singles, this lot has made a sound of their own, blending that ’60s rock with garage, classic punk, and pop punk, for a catchy as hell result. About this EP, the band writes “One garage rock anthem, three versions: The original. A sped-up punk reprise. A slow kraut intro. It’s obsessive, overthought, overdriven, and absolutely intentional.” Besides the “Kraut intro,” these songs lean on the pop side, and are all fun, with snaking guitar riffs, fast and bouncy drums, rattling bass, and lightly distorted vocals. From the impressionable words on their Bandcamp page, to a nice write-up in Missing Piece (praising the release of Day Tripper), I like the band’s story as much as their music. Everything feels genuine, earnest, and truly bootstrapped from the beginning. Great concept EP, awesome band.

Taxi Girls Coming Up Roses 12″

Catchy, hook-filled rock’n’roll from Montreal’s TAXI GIRLS on their Coming Up Roses 12”, featuring five tracks filled with poppy harmonies and muscular reverb-drenched guitars, blending elements of classic ’70s punk with ’90s garage rock. Actually, the more I hear, the more I think this would fit in nicely with the early ’00s Detroit scene alongside DIRTBOMBS and DETROIT COBRAS. Highlights include the surfy “Hands Off” and “Stay With Me,” which reminds me of BLACK LIPS at their sweetest. Highly recommended.

Taxi Girls Rainy / The Lion’s Share 7″

While the record sleeve is a little cheesy in my mind, the music is definitely not. This is catchy stuff delivered at a measured pace. If you’re lucky enough to know STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, you might draw some similarities here. I’d call it straightforward, grinding power punk’n’roll. And as tough as they might want to appear, the music really is kind of pretty. Let’s hear it for Canada, eh?

The Courettes Salta Il Ramo / Non Ti Lascerò 7″

For me, the COURETTES are the next big thing, though I think it’s likely they’ve been around for a bit given their volume of released music. Still, this Danish/Brazilian duo takes a favorite genre of mine (garage punk) and really delivers it in a special way. This single happens to be two of their originals, this time recorded in a foreign language. I would have expected it to be Brazilian (or even Danish), but it seems it’s Italian. Doesn’t matter—two real garage rockers here that will keep your head bouncing while doing internet research trying to figure out who the fuck these guys are. Female-fronted, which is always a plus for me.