The two records that are subject of this review have something in common. They are seamlessly reintroducing hard rock into the garage-rock club scene and it’s an incredibly welcoming and rejuvenating moment in the newer rock’n’roll history. These two bands do it with pride.
Orville Bateman Neeley III is up and coming new royalty of the larger rock’n’roll scene. His initials make the name of the OBN IIIs band name. Although a new name to me, Neeley has been present on the Austin underground scene since 2011 and this is his third studio album already. After a quick 1-2-3-4 is counted out, the album begins confidently with No Time For The Blues. And before the third song Uncle Powderbag runs out, you already have an idea that this album is a good, fast rocking garage rock ordeal.
But then Queen Glom and Beg to Christ kick in and something happens there. These two are not your generic garage rock tunes. Neeley slows down and gets heavy. Listening to those two songs, you only miss a whirling Vertigo label in the middle of the LP. The songs turn to hard rock for depth and bravado. When I heard that sound, I knew I missed it very much.
Anthemic Parasites goes by and Worries close the record by going back to the garage sounds with some incredible guitar soloing in the middle.
Liquor Store come from the suburbs of New York City. They also bring out that old hard rock sound, especially in tunes like Pile of Dirt and Lynchmob, but the record is more than that. They depart from hard rock more than they stick to it, showing a sense of humor with Vodka Beach and Titty Was Loc’d.
In The Garden is a big, rich sounding record. Satin Dollars defend the glory of the New York City, sounding like a lost Dolls song. Harp sounds like a great addition and multiple voice chanting adds to the excitement. On Midnight Walker and some other moments on the record, Liquor Store sound like an 80s rust-belt rock band Death of Samantha.
Layers of the instruments and complexity from both records that we are reviewing here, proved a bit challenging to recreate on the live stage, when I saw OBN IIIs and Liquor Store playing live in Cleveland. Particularly, the hard rock edge proudly displayed on both records did not come through in the live shows, but both bands tried hard and still made memorable shows. I will be definitely looking forward for their future shows and records. I sure hope that the hard rock sound sticks around in today’s rock’n’roll scene. OBN IIIs and Liquor Store will be remembered as the flag bearers of this new trend.
Cover albums are a fad of this millennium. They give an artist a chance to show off their interpretive abilities and taste. Will Oldham’s new record is also an exercise in interpretation, but Oldham doesn’t go back to other people’s songs. He goes back three years behind, to his own album Wolfroy Goes To Town.
If you live in Kerhonkson NY, it takes you two hours to get to Manhattan by car. If you can find a parking spot, you can hang out over there. So, you’re not quite in the center of New York City, but you’re also not quite upstate either. If you start a rock’n’roll band, you probably have the same chance of becoming the new Strokes as any other band in the USA. And who would even want that in the first place?
One friend of mine classifies albums that he likes into big and small records. Not according to the dimensions, but according to impact and depth of a concept laid out on the record. According to that classification, Games is a small record. Simple three minute love songs, no impact or concept whatsoever. Still, simple can sometimes be really great. In this case, Games reached a near perfection in my mind. Every song is super catchy and fun. Simplicity of the overall delivery here is disarming.
One of the most exciting and definitely the most monumental come-backs this year is The Bevis Frond latest album White Numbers. This once very productive band lead by Nick Saloman published three records in ’87, and then an average of two per year until the new millennium. They returned in 2011 after seven years of silence with The Leaving of London, just to remind us that Saloman still has a lot to say. But this year’s White Numbers is a masterpiece.
If you haven’t seen Low Cut Connie live show yet, you should. There is not too many bands out there that put such a fun, carefree show. They would surely prefer to have a full house, but even if there’s an audience of five, they’ll knock the house down. Adam Weiner carries upright piano to every show and it’s gotta be a hell to tune it while on tour, but that piano is a key instrument in the band and some synthesizer just won’t do. Weiner shares song writing and vocal duties with an Englishman Dan Finnemore. Dan sings in a flawless american accent though. The band will sometimes rotate not just vocals, but also instruments at their live show and in short, it’s the hardest working band out there on the tour. 
Things are very complicated this year. There are two excellent bands with the name of (The) Fuzz. Both are special projects from previously well established musicians. There is Fuzz (without “the”) from San Francisco lead by Ty Segall, a band that has captured attention of music fans all over the world. The other Fuzz is The Fuzz, they are from Memphis and they are lead by Harlan T. Bobo. You won’t hear that much about this band in fancy web portals though, except in this one.
San Francisco is maybe the hottest rock’n’roll town at the moment. But, in the world of The Little Lighthouse, the rock’n’roll capital is still in Memphis, TN. On our year end list, six albums are from Memphis and only two are from San Francisco. But only one of those records reflects the spirit of rock’n’roll in its most traditional, old fashioned way and it’s from Memphis and it’s all about Memphis. It’s the Trashed Romeos record Where Dreamers Never Go.
Oblivians are a band from Memphis, the godfathers of the garage underground scene in that city that just broke up when they were getting to be known worldwide in the late nineties. They called it quits after a great collaboration with Quintron in 1997. The band went separate ways, Greg Cartwright established himself as one of the most important songwriters with the new band Reigning Sound, Jack Yarber became the king of the minimalist garage and Eric Friedl was busy running the famous Goner Records label and playing gutter punk with True Sons of Thunder. This year they decided to ditch their real surnames again and return to The Oblivians.