Snotty,
fuzzed up garage punk from the North West.
It's odd to think that
a musical genre that was so short lived and financially unrewarding
for many its originators continues to be the template of choice for
so many current bands. I'm talking of garage punk, and those '60s US
bands that formed in that short period after the decline of the beat
era, but before psych became flower power. Those bands whose
forgotten, poor selling singles were collected up and reissued the
following decade, most successfully on Elektra Records' Nuggets
series.
It's that style of
music that's made by The Shook-Ups! who hail not from the American
mid-west, but from Wigan, a town more famous for its pier, its
association with northern soul, The Verve, and er well... pies. That
could all change though with the release of Bad Reception, The
Shook-Ups! debut album. It's garage punk played and sung exactly as
it should be. With plenty of fuzz guitar played through Selmer or Vox
amps, and simple lines on a Farfisa organ, it's anti-intellectual,
defiantly non-progressive, yet packed with hook-laden songs from
start to finish. Any solos are short, sharp and serve the songs.
The subject matter
sticks mainly with the small-time psychodrama of girl trouble and
dissatisfaction, with lyrics more sneered than sung, yet the songs
are so catchy and infectious it makes it seem that such a mindset
could almost be fun. And it is, at least while the album is playing.
Fans of the Nuggets compilations, The Sonics, The Seeds, or in
fact any music that doesn't take itself too seriously will get a kick
out of this album.
Click here for The Shook-Ups! website.
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