Gayzeing On A Black Soul

 

One of the better random “discoveries” that Sonic Masala has made in the past eighteen months has been Idaho outfit TEENS (see my post here). And although they haven’t produced anything for a bit, leading member David W Wood has released a pretty damn fine EP under the guise of Gayze.



The seven tracks on Black Soul EP delves deeper into the mythology of the garage rock sound, injecting the squall and swagger that is often missing in today’s carbon copies. As such, songs like ‘Ain’t It Brave’ have that heady mix of hard-edge and desert psych that Roky Erickson excelled at and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club used to nail to the wall. Again, the lo-fi aesthetic suits these tracks, especially the reverberating isolation that informs plaintive (and surprisingly upbeat, considering the grimly excellent music video by the growing talent of Tyler T Williams (remember Youth Lagoon’s ‘Montana’?) that accompanies it) track ‘Done To My Love’ – although sometimes Wood’s drawled vocals are lost. That is a minor quibble though – Black Soul is an epic sounding 7”, tapping the seamier side of garage rock that was encapsulated by the leather-clad motorheads of the psych-fuelled 60s, and such a down and dirty sound is a welcome return. I hope this becomes more than a “thing” for Wood – there is an exciting electricity riding through these songs that alludes to something bigger (and darker) just around the corner…

You can get Black Soul through Bleeding Gold Records here.

Black Soul – Ain’t It Brave
Black Soul – Done To My Love

Those Damn Teens Rock My World

Terribly immoral and perversely suggestive heading aside, Teens is an incredibly hard band name to find info on. That said, I did find out about the Idaho garage act, otherwise I wouldn't be saying how much I enjoy their self-titled album. They've only been around for less than a year, but their brand of garage surf punk with shades of Eric Burden is infectious, relatively tight (for the genre this is a pleasant surprise) and love music, full stop. And if you don't like it, fuck off. Their words, not mine. But to be fair, if you are reading this blog and still can't be bothered to like Teens, you may as well do as they say.


You can purchase Teens digitally for $3 at their Bandcamp - its worth parting with the spare change. Its fucking cold today, but it has me rocking out in my jim jams and blue hoodie, like the delusional hobo that I am. They are playing tomorrow night at The Red Room in Boise, Idaho with another SM favourite, The Boom Bang - don't miss it!

Teens - Reasons
Teens - O'Lay