DOWNLOAD: Museum Mouth - Blood Mountain
Rock trio Museum Mouth, led by multi-instrumentalist Karl Kuehnhail, hails from North Carolina. The group will release its new album, Sexy But Not Happy, for free next Tuesday via their Bandcamp page, but we’ve got one new track for you early. “Blood Mountain” is a stomping garage rock number that's raw and unabashed. Somehow all the distortion and static comes together into a catchy, dynamic rock stomper.
DOWNLOAD: Italian Japanese - Two Islands
Southern California rockers Italian Japanese have decided to go the relationship song route on their new single. The track, “Two Islands,” which reflects on an impossible pairing imagined as, well, two islands, is a hazy indie ballad with a garage-like glitz. It makes a logical follow-up to songs by bands like stellastarr* and The Stills.
DOWNLOAD: The Minutes - Secret History
The Minutes may be a relatively new band, but the Dublin trio has already accrued a serious buzz in the U.K., garnering comparisons to everyone from The Black Keys to The White Stripes to Jet. In truth, the group, whose debut EP comes out in the U.S. on February 14, crafts spazzy garage rock numbers that embody a sense of wild abandon a group like Jet never possessed. “Secret History” is an apt introduction to the threesome – a rowdy, clanging rock number that you can only imagine is best live.
DOWNLOAD: Royal Baths - Darling Divine
(Photo: Fatos Marishta)
"Darling Divine" is sneering garage rock with a muddled sparkle of guitars and rumbling, ramshackle drums that bring to mind genre deconstructionists like Royal Trux. It's also the opener from Royal Baths' new album Better Luck Next Life, which hits the streets February 7 via Kanine Records. Keep an eye on this one.
DOWNLOAD: The Energy - I Can’t Stand Up
What would Black Flag sound like recording a garage rock album? The Energy, a punk rock band from Houston, answers this question on "I Can't Stand Up." The group released its debut, Get Split, via Team Science Records a few months back, and this one is a great sample – a grungy punk track featuring a loose, impassioned performance and wide-eyed yelping vocals that balance between angry aggression and thoughtful intelligence. You know that's hard to do.
PREMIERE: The King Khan Experience - Bob Log Stomp & Are You Serious
Garage rock musician King Khan is something of a chameleon, releasing music under various guises, permutations and projects. These two tracks, a pair of raucous stompers, come from a recent collaboration with Scion A/V. “Are You Serious” is a guitar-heavy number where Khan noodles around as hollow drums clang behind him, while “Bob Log Stomp” is a thrashing, spirited party rocker. Grab both and turn it up!
The King Khan Experience - Bob Log Stomp
The King Khan Experience - Are You Serious
DOWNLOAD: The Beets - Doing As I Do
The Beets practice dirty rock 'n' pop like that of their garage-dwelling forefathers. The group relentlessly gigs, churns out songs and is about to release its second 2011 album on October 24. "Doing As I Do" is the first preview of the group's new one (and first for Hardly Art) entitled Let The Poison Out. I hear pre-psychedelic Beatles, see moldy American basements and embrace the warped hints of everything from '50s Top 40 to The Ramones. It's like someone spilled bong water on an oldies station.
DOWNLOAD: PUJOL - Mayday
(Photo: Jonathon Kingsbury)
In many ways, Nashville's PUJOL is relentless. Notching ten releases over the past two years, including a recent Jack White-produced turn, he rips through the sort of sweaty, high-energy garage rock that keeps the true spirit of thrashy rock music alive. It seems PUJOL is so comfortable going extreme that he's naming his Saddle Creek debut, Nasty, Brutish, And Short, after one of the biggest OGs of all: Thomas Hobbes. Get ready to spazz October 18.
