Slumber party girl pop from Florida

Artist: Garbo's Daughter
Title: Goes Pop! cassette
Label: Burger Records
Release date: Late 2009
Release number: BRGR-022

Florida-based trio Garbo's Daughter is yet another band that shares my love for 1960's girl groups and Phil Spector (before he shot The Barbarian Queen), as evidenced by their debut four song cassette tape.

The opener, "Private Party," is fun and cute dance pop that will remind you of those big sister slumber party scenes you used to see in movies. It is followed by the delightful "He Makes My Heart Go POP!" which is, as you can probably figure out, a sugary pop 1960's throwback about a boy, complete with an opening sample from some film or TV show that promises the hottest thing since Cher began her solo career.

The last half of this cassette-only EP begins with Spectoresque original "I Only Have Eyes For You" and a cover of the Spector-pinned Crystals classic, "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby". Both songs are good ones, even if they lack the charm and danceability of the first two tracks.

While The Booze see no point in improving on the near-flawless sounds of the 60's that arrived on our shores from the U.K., these girls are clearly content with celebrating American-bred acts from that decade without adding anything new to the mix. Garbo's Daughter is as good as anyone, including The Flips, when it comes to paying tribute to their pop idols.

Video of the Week: Balkans

The Spits draw inspiration from CHiPS

Artist: The Spits
Title: Pain 7"
Label: Slovenly Recordings
Release date: Late 2009

The Spits did more in 2009 than put out one of the year's best long-players. They also put out a 7" dedicated to alleged kiddie fiddler Roman Pulanski with three amazing originals and a cover song lifted from CHiPS.

The cover song, "I Hate Pain" by Pain, is a new one to me. It is best known as the song performed by the generic, angry punk band in the "battle of the bands" episode of CHiPS I just forced myself to watch on YouTube. The best part, aside from Eric Estrada's singing, was when they show this punk girl with a Jack Grisham haircut. Now THAT should be a fad and I will do whatever I can to encourage girls to cop the next governor of California's impeccable style circa 1982.

Back on topic, this song is pretty damn awesome. While most bands turn to Killed By Death compilations when they want to cover obscure songs, The Spits looked to a shitty and slightly homoerotic (says the guy who wrote the previous paragraph) television show for inspiration. In the process, they took a paint-by-numbers punk tune and made it a little more dangerous and a lot more weird.

From there we have a middle finger raised to all authority figures in "Beat You Up", an honest though satirical take on American imperialism in "Army Life" (or, as the record's label calls it, "Army Bound"), and yet another eye to eye with the Apocalypse Spits number in "Planet Failure".

All four songs are awesome, but "Army Life" gets the nod as the best. It's one of the best Spits songs to date, and they've been releasing good ones for almost a decade. It's also the kind of classic punk track that makes you wonder if you should dance and laugh or get off your ass and try to fix this wretched world.

"Marching through the jungles, the desert, and the ice. I probably won't come home, I love the army life!" Sing that to the next old-timer who tells you punk rock is all safe and nice now.

Newz for the Week!

* I guess it's not too soon to let this cat out the bag: I'm getting a radio show, and this time it won't just be a one-off thing. It's going to be with the University of West Georgia's new student-ran online station, The Wolf. I'm going to be able to play vinyl, so there's even more incentive now for folks to send records my way. I'll let everyone know the launch date for the show as soon as it is announced.

* According to The Atlanta Mess-Around's Facebook page: "If you're coming from out of town please go to www.thehighlandinn.com. They're giving 10% off rooms if you say Mess Around to them. They're our sponsor and we love them!" That's good news for all the out-of-towners who want to be part of this huge weekend of live music.

A couple of Star Bar shows for record collector types

I'm thinking about checking out the Jonathan Richman show. Seeing Exene would be awesome, but I'm busy and there's no telling how many times I've seen her live between X, The Original Sinners, and The Knitters.

The first wave of band announcements for this April's Mess Around

Brian at Douchemaster Records has confirmed some big names for this year's Mess Around.

We're doing it again. Two full days of insanity in East Atlanta happening April 23rd and 24th. Limited two day passes are available now here: http://badearl.com/content/ticketing
More details soon enough, but here's what's happening thus far:

The Urinals
Reigning Sound
Davila 666
Gentleman Jesse & His Men
Ty Segall
Cococoma
GG King
Predator
Woven Bones
Wizzard Sleeve
King Louie's Missing Monuments
White Wires
Bad Sports
Customers
Carnivores
Georgina Starlington
Games
Bukkake Boys
Barreracudas

See you in April!

Potentially awesome show tomorrow at 529

Tomorrow night Ralph, Wild Yaks, and S.S. Knoel (Alex from The Barberries as a one man garage band) are performing at 529. DJ Brandon Static will also be on hand.