The heavy garage revival of the last and current decade is reaching it's ceiling. With independent bands becoming indistinguishable from each other again. It happens with every headlining genre, in ever period. Those of us able to look beyond all the pretension and hip dribble being shlocked online(ha, ha,) and printed know about this mapping. It's just human nature. And when that's all understood it's much easier to find and enjoy artistic works that actually have some long lasting worth. I consider these three recent albums a part of that class.
They each have individual spirit:
Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania
Recorded almost entirely by the prolific John Dwyer alone, this album is full of sweet 60's call and response harmonies and sloppy hip shaking anthems. There's also a nice sense of closeness in John's Surfing Bird on acid vocal style. You can here him counting off time before a song or apologizing to himself, giving the sense that he's performing in your house/bedroom/head just for you.
King Khan & BBQ Show - Invisible Girl
A bit more polished than their previous albums but just as vulgar.
Sounds like Frankie Valli huffing mountains of zombie powder and amphetamines. Can't really detail it any better than that.
Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion
This Brooklyn, NY band hopped right over the sophomore slump with this album. Droney, strummy, good. Most of the tracks flow nicely within the pop formula and make me want to skip around the astral plane.
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