Sounding like a band crossing the energy of American garage surf gods The Lords Of Altamont, French punks Les Thugs with the legendary Motörhead, Frau Blücher combine a poppy, but aggressive garage-punk with hints of metal. The band name comes from a running gag from the movie Young Frankenstein, and you can read about the history of the name here. Gags and comedy aside, Frau Blucher make great power pop.
Though there are heavy tensions at the moment between the governments of Japan and the People’s Republic of China (sic), this compilation proves that there is peace through psych. Psychedelic music is the medium both the legendary guitarist of Acid Mothers Temple, Kawabata Makoto and Chinese acid-folk musician Baisong Wu, and their collaboration bore the fruit of dulcet, meandering, gentle washes of lightly LSD-soaked bliss. This is music for the cloudy day we’re currently enduring in the Greater Los Angeles area, and it fits perfectly with the clouds. A stellar piece of work.
Combining surf rock, garage rock, touches of psych and having a generally lo-fi vibe to it, Mexico City’s Secret Agent combine a couple of cool instrumentals with two sung tracks, including the title track, Mata Hari, featuring Vince Montes Rivera, which you can listen to below:
Los Angeles produces scores of great rock bands, and has since before I was born. Tara Who? continue the tradition of mixing elements of straight-ahead rock, punk, and the kind of metal that seems to only come from the area of the city near venues like The Roxy or bars like The Rainbow. Pretty solid stuff. From their promo bio: Los Angeles, CA. – Tarah Who? is back with “Manners” February 19, 2021, the follow-up single and video to their eruptive song, “Swallow That Pill”. The L.A. based firebrand frontwoman, Tarah G. Carpenter (vocals/guitar) and Corale Hervé (drums/backing vocals), complete this duo who have carefully crafted songs…
jhusel · Los Saicos – Fugitivo de Alcatraz I’d like to point you, dear readers, to a magnificent blog called The Listening Post. Each post includes a new song of the day, and this one is a treasure out of Peru from what many fans call the first proto-punk band, Los Saicos. You can read the blog here.
Easily one of the best collections of rare or hardly-known garage rock bands. The track listing reads as follows: 00:00 The Enfileds – I’m for things you do 2:28 The Choir – In Love’s Shadow 5:05 Danny & The Counts – Ode to Wind 7:39 The Odes & Ends – Never Learn 10:23 Squires – Wonderin 12:50 The Illusions – Little Girl 15:10 Dark Knights – Send Her to Me 17:44 Young Tyrants – She Don’t Get The Right 20:39 Mystic Tide – Stay Away 22:54 Avenger VI – Heartbeat 25:02 The Malibu’s – Cry 27:14 The Nomads – Please…