Spend Your Money on OBNIIIs

I love the unabashed hi-octane rock and/or roll that Austin’s OBN III’s push with ferocious alacrity. It has always been about pumping out vein-popping, synapse-fizzing songs that are as hook-laden as they are loud and lairy. Worth A Lot Of Money (out now through 12XU) is no different. Here the hooks are even more brazen, blazing and bloodstained – take standout track ‘You Can Let Me Down Now’, a mixture of JSBX braggadocio, Wipers stop-start magnetism and bottom end aggression, and The Clash’s laconic wails. The thing about pointing out influences and inferences on an OBNIIIs album is null and void though – Orville Bateman Neeley III and his band of not-so-merry men are only interested on building the largest, loudest monument to rock on such foundations. The fidelity here is fully glossed but never shies away from the shameless abandon and garage swagger that the band have made their bread and butter – ‘New Money’, ‘Dismissive’ (a subdued filter of Division of Laura Lee covering The Stooges) and ‘The Stalker’ spit and growl. Grab this here.

Tuffing Out The Wild Desires

King Tuff has had a pretty big first half of 2012. First of all they sold out their Wild Desire 7" on Suicide Squeeze, whose title track slays in so many ways. Kyle Thomas's vocals are perfectly laconic, his guitar solo is insanely awesome, and he manages to capture elements of 60s Kinks, 70s Clash and T-Rex, throw it all into a reverent blender and spew forth one of the best singles of the year. The crazy thing is that he doesn't blow his wad here - Wild Desire is only foreplay.

King Tuff - Wild Desire

King Tuff, his second LP after 2008's Was Dead and first for Sub Pop, is overflowing with charm, charisma and riffs that it's hard not to throw out all other albums and mold this permanently to the turntable. This is distilled garage pop brilliance, albeit with a better guitarist than usual at the helm, yet the solos (and there are a few - all amazing) never overshadow the innate positivity that emanates from Thomas throughout the recording. Sometimes it may have benefited from a bit more edge and bite to take away from the giddiness felt throughout - but then that never hampered last year's excellent album Goodbye Bread from SF god Ty Segall, did it? Also, has an amazing cover sleeve. Always an attractor...


King Tuff is out now on Sub Pop. This too is hard to get on vinyl - it's been selling better than even Sub Pop predicted - but you can still grab it (also in a bundle with the excellent bat logo T-shirt) here.

King Tuff - Bad Thing
King Tuff - Keep On Movin'

A Familiar Yet Refreshing Sojourn Down Sonic Avenues

I have had Television Youth, the ace record from Canadian punks Sonic Avenues, in my inbox for months (it came out in January). I was meant to post about it for The Styrofoam Drone (amongst a plethora of things - sorry Zac, I'll be back on top of things in the upcoming week!), yet it fell through the cracks (expect to see the Happy New Year/Nite Fields split 7" soon though). This is a great album though, and it has jumped on my hunched back and beat me around the ears insistently this week, so I thought I better purge by vomiting it all over you, beautifully warped listener. It harkens back to days when punk was really just anarchic rock - The Clash, The Jam, The Ramones. Yet it shines a light on many of the shitty things that slacker kids can find themselves latching on to - namely, apathy. Above all though, it is the romantic notion of hope rising out of the angst that is most endearing. This is no throwback, it is merely a bunch of dudes writing a brace of killer songs that refuse to not kick arse. Actually, maybe that is a throwback...


Television Youth is available through Dirtnap Records.

Sonic Avenues - Givin' Up On You
Sonic Avenues - Television Youth