Wassup Rocker Radio Mixtape #21 begins with a wild paced video by U.K.’s punks, FREAK! Up next is Swedish garage rocker Ditches with their song X-Ray Eyes! After that is a brand new video from Lolipop records’ L.A. garage rock band called The Squids! To end the show is Finnish, I want to call them Finlandiers, Blue Eyed Sons with their killer song called Animals!
Connar Ridd goes by the name of Freak (he prefers to use all capitals, “nice and loud and bold”, so you can see him coming). You can certainly hear him a mile off, this 19-year-old one-man band whose bleepified, poppy but riff-heavy grunge’n’roll nods, on his debut EP, to Nirvana and Arctic Monkeys. It really is all him (live, two mates handle bass and drums). He then adds assorted effects, “keyboards in” the synth-bass parts, and does all the vocals: his studio bedroom set-up comprises a cheap laptop, Logic Pro, a midi keyboard off eBay and a microphone his parents bought him for Christmas.
Ditches are from Stockholm, Sweden. They are amazing. I sadly couldn’t find any reviews about them online. Go like their facebook page!
The Squids craft these sweet and sugary garage pop nuggets with clean guitars and fluttering organs and deliver them as honestly as possible to the point where your heart melts. “Blondie” is the perfect example of their sun-drenched pop, boasting bubbly hand-claps, shimmering guitars and a tight rhythm section. The song changes gears about halfway through, setting us up with an invigorating build-up of punchy bass lines, rolling drums and blissful howling. It ends up revealing a twangy guitar solo to close out the track, which should leave your mouth watering for more of this deliciously uplifting garage pop.” (Sampled from Styrofoam Drone)
We were very impressed by Blue Eyed Sons‘ music and their stage presence reminded us very much of the sixties and seventies rock sound. Bands like The Doors, Led Zeppelin and the like were never far from my mind. After the show I managed to have a talk with singer Joel Hellström to praise their show and he was so kind as to hand me their latest EP Animals (a.k.a. “London Sessions”).
The Surfing Magazines is a new project from familiar faces. Featuring two thirds of The Wave Pictures and one half of Slow Club, the band’s garage rock crunch matches the menace of Link Wray to some poignantly British songwriting.
The Beaches are back with a new single and it’s a banger! Money will be off the forthcoming debut album scheduled to be out this fall. These hardcore ladies are Death From Above 1979‘s special guests on their North American tour, so be sure to check them out when they come to a town near you.
The Orielles are an indie band. But not in the derogatory “landfill” sense. They’re reclaiming the word, reminding us that “indie” used to be something to aspire to. In this, they’re quite noughties: they do the girl-group-go-garage-rock thing that was de rigueur a few years back, especially in Brooklyn, and there’s a chillwave glaze and surf-pop shimmer over some of their tracks. But they’re also quintessentially 80s indie. Their shambling jangles can be reminiscent of the maligned C86 scene but, on their more recent tracks, there is a rhythmic propulsion that marks them out as progeny of an earlier NME cassette compilation of alternative music: namely, Dancin’ Master, from 1981, which evinced the then-radical shift towards dub, disco and funk.
Tristen, who performs and records under her first name, was raised in Chicago but moved to Nashville a decade ago. There she met the guitarist and producer Hughen, and the pair was soon collaborating. They’ve made three albums of deeply catchy classic pop, with Tristen’s crystalline voice and empathetic, incisive lyrics at the center. The latest, Sneaker Waves, is her best yet – a meditation on the tragic habits and tender aspirations of people stumbling through the rapid changes of 21st century life.
Taking influence from the likes of T-Rex, The Ramones and Big Star, Bad Nerves are controlled anthemic chaos. Sitting somewhere between Charlie Moon & The Moonhearts and Ty Segall, “Radio Punk” has all the hallmarks of a power pop jam but with a distinctive garage-rock feel. It is a very decisive track for a band in their formative stages, combining brash vocals with jagged guitar and a simplistic but incredibly effective backbeat. It has been a tough time for guitar bands of late but as Bad Nerves have demonstrated, a little rock and roll never hurt anyone. (Review sampled from DIYMAG)
This is Catholic Action‘s first single since February’s Doing Well – one of best of songs the year so far, if you ask us – Propaganda is a notably different affair from the snappy, glam-pop sound which characterizes the band’s previous offerings, but is no less infectious. From the opening synth lines, the 80’s goth-pop influences -the Cure in particular – are immediately apparent with Chris McCrory’s vocal delivery taking on a more yearning, forlorn style than usual, but in typical Catholic Action style, it’s an instantly catchy and uplifting anthem for the summer days ahead. (Review sampled from poppedmusic uk)
The Naturals are an Retro Rock Power Pop band from the Newcastle area consisting of brothers Aaron and Keiren Jolly. Their cleverly titled debut album We Are The Naturals and was entirely written, recorded and produced by the band themselves and has been released independently. Keep and eye out for this band if they tour to your town make sure to go see them!
There’s been some real thought put into these songs providing variance and wit. The whole Tearaways album is a fun packed thing and when I bemoan the likes of Coldplay and their miserable sound it’s because of albums like this. Let it show that you are enjoying it and the listeners will too. This ticks all the boxes. The only thing that I’m not sure about is the title, something different, but a bit of a mouthful. – Don Valentine “Hear A Single” – Blogspot
If you are or have ever been a directionless 20-something teetering on the cusp of an existential crisis, Teenage Grownups– the infectious first single off the new Lovely Bad Things album of the same name– is your next new escape from crushing reality. The song encapsulates the universal feeling of not knowing which way is up when you’re trying to find yourself, all wrapped up nicely in a hook-driven, power pop package. Like a high school crush you never quite got over, Teenage Grownups pulls at your heartstrings by mixing sentimental sincerity with a rush of playful nostalgia. Expect instrumental nods to bands like Pavement and Dinosaur Jr., placed alongside vocal arrangements and melodies that are uniquely Lovely Bad Things.
Milwaukee punks The Pukes play catchy as hell 50s inspired punk rock in a similar bucket as Hunx and His Punx but a little more rockin’, like the snotty offspring of Eddie Cochran and Glen Danzig (not sure how that happens but whatever). They’ve only been around since 2015 – releasing a single and an EP and now their debut “The Revenge of The Pukes” – 10 or so cuts of frantic doo-wop garage boogie rock and roll.
Amyl and the Sniffers are punky, mid-70s glam revival goodness from Melbourne. Every track is an easy-sleazy headbopper, but opener I’m Not A Loser is the clear winner here, like a teenage Sex Pistols with the brattiest kid sister imaginable on vox. Perfectly snotty stuff, it almost demands you break every window in your high school.
White Reaper are from Louisville, KY—where the Muhammad Ali Center stands as a tribute to its native son who backed up the greatest anthology of shit talk ever heard. It’d be enough to have the sense of humor to call their album The World’s Best American Band. Even better if they have the heart to actually mean it. But White Reaper have the chops and the guts to make their hometown hero proud: bragging is when a person says something and can’t do it and White Reaper do what they say. In White Reaper’s world, being coy about influence means you have something to hide and they proudly flaunt theirs like denim patches—-Ramones of course, but also Cheap Trick, Kiss, Thin Lizzy Van Halen, rock bands who essentially functioned as pop. The opening title track poses *The World’s Best American Band *as both a concept record and self-fulfilling prophecy, piping in the kind of crowd noise that can only be generated in arenas far bigger than White Reaper may ever see in this lifetime.
WASSUP ROCKER RADIO 