New Band: Reatards

Well, Hughie needs to get with the times. This garage-punk outfit rock as hard as I could hope for with catchy riffs, wailing vocals and lyrics that make me cringe - 'did he just say that?!'

Apparently, the front man, Jay Reatard, died fairly recently. I'm upset about this and yet I've only been listening to them for a few days. For me, I think that's a strong indicator for a good group; getting attached and dragged in a short period of time. Hardly any bands do that to me.

Now, for the music. The various melodies, loops and riffs remind me heavily of an angsty second-coming of Ramones. This is a winner. I really can't be bothered writing up a review for each individual album, but here's a list of what I've got sitting in my library (listed in order of preference):

1. Not Fucked Enough

2.Grown Up, Fucked Up

3. Teenage Hate

4. Bedroom Disasters

I'd imagine there'd be more material floating around cyberspace, but hey, those albums are an excellent starting point. I put Bedroom Disasters last as it isn't particularly compact; it seems to be like Sonic Youth's Dirty -just a mashing of tracks with no direction.

One facet of their work that I really like is the song length. For me, length is everything. I have the attention span of a fourteen year old on Viagra when it comes to music, and with an average song length of 1-2 minutes; I am suddenly calmed down.

Also, the dude that died - Jay Reatard, has solo material. I'd get on that shit too.

Hugh.