garage-rock

In the summer I wasn’t sure Florida Water Blues matched blame the clown, Twisted Teens’ first album of the year. Two months on, the earlier record is still a little more immediate, but this one might have more staying power.

The dominant feeling is overload. Take a typical song and almost every component is pushing into the red. Caspian Hollywell plays most of the instruments, but you notice his deep, gnarly vocals and scratchy riffs first. Behind them are a drum machine and RJ Santos’s pedal steel. The net result is equal parts garage punk and country. Within that template, it’s about as close as they could come to a comedown record. The beating sun of blame the clown is setting (the closer is, helpfully, called ‘Sun Go Down’).

The melodies are strong throughout, which is all the more impressive given how much they release: a third album, The Holy Cross Tigers, is due from Sub Pop on 6 November. Lyrically, it’s great, and the wry lines come faster than you can catch them. The title track opens with “had about a hundred beers of solitude”. Simon Price has reworked a Dolly Parton quip for the Ramones: ‘it takes a lot of brains to sound this dumb’. I’d extend the compliment to Hollywell and Santos.

King Tuff is Kyle Thomas, Vermont-based and well-connected. He’s toured with Ty Segall’s Muggers and fronts WITCH alongside J. Mascis, so the centre of gravity here is no surprise: 60s psych pop, 70s country rock, the same well that I’m always happy to see come back into fashion every few years. MOO offers nothing new. It’s just very well executed.

Recorded on the same Tascam 388 he used for his 2013 debut, the album swings between garage punk cuts and looser, more playful songs. ‘Stairway to Nowhere’ is at the glam end of power-pop and recalls David Vandervelde’s “Nothin’ No”, itself a Marc Bolan facsimile — Bolan being a clear influence on both men. ‘Invisible Ink’ is the most catchy thing here, even if it might inadvertently summon ‘Rock Got No Reason’ from School of Rock. ‘Crosseyed Critters’ is a country-rock stompalong sandwiched between garage cuts. ‘Delusions’ could be Cotton Mather, masters of a previous power-pop revival, doing a Tom Petty tribute. ‘Backroads’ closes things out on a feel-good note, and makes me want to hit play again.