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.

Radioactivity Time Won’t Bring Me Down CD

RADIOACTIVITY’s Time Won’t Bring Me Down arrives ten years after Silent Kill, and, damn, the wait just might have been worth it. If you’re not familiar with this crew, Jeff Burke, Mark Ryan, Gregory Rutherford, and Daniel Fried intersect across so many bands (including MARKED MEN, MIND SPIDERS, BAD SPORTS, HIGH TENSION WIRES, etc.) that their family trees must look like a spirograph. Here we have eleven songs in just over thirty minutes, each written with clear purpose and played with the kind of tightness you’d expect from people who’ve spent their lives doing this. At times, for me, this brought to mind Meltdown-era MIND SPIDERS, but I think fans of any band in this extended universe will feel right at home. The faster songs are always going to be my happy place, but one standout track for me was the more nuanced “Shell,” where the rhythm section locks in below a soaring guitar line that opens up an unexpected sense of space while maintaining that forward momentum. Ten years between full-lengths, and they’ve evolved without losing the best parts of their sound. This would have made my top ten list last year if I had heard it in time. Strongly recommended.

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.

The New Christs The Burning of Rome: Selected Works 2xLP

RADIO BIRDMAN singer Rob Younger curated this twenty-track, double LP retrospective of his other band, the NEW CHRISTS, pulling together highlights from four decades of mid-tempo rock recorded with players from CELIBATE RIFLES, LIME SPIDERS, BARRACUDAS, and HOODOO GURUS. While Jello Biafra once praised their “crunchy, no-frills garage rock” and Tim Yohannan flagged their Detroit/MC5 roots, the material here mostly lands in my ears like ’80s alternative rock with just an extra dash or two of grit. It’s a step back from RADIO BIRDMAN’s aggression, instead leaning into blues-based grooves and their pub rock beginnings. The collection gains a little steam as it moves forward, with later cuts like “We Got This!” and “Born Out of Time” delivering a little more kick, but overall this feels like music made to be enjoyed in a packed bar rather than your headphones.