Watch It Sparkle EP

Watch It Sparkle is a Punk / Trash / Garage Rock band from Seattle Washington. This three piece band features Justin Mellow on guitar and vocals, Steb on bass and Starr on drums. All three play their instruments with passion and passable competence. Here is a review of their new 4-song EP. The band will be supporting it with a West Coast tour in March (Show Schedule here) and a full length album titled "Leave Me to Dream" is due to be released later this year.

1. My Baby Has a Red Tooth - This song starts off with power cords and pounding drums, soon augmented by keyboards. Vocals come in starting with a frantic "uhhhhh" followed by the punk verses and chorus. The vocals are a bit low in the mix but this is a guitar song so it's fine.

2. Your Heart Will Throb Hard - This song also starts with power chords but more in a Garage form. It also features keyboard similar to what you hear on the first B-52s album. Again the vocals are punky but a little stronger than track 1. The first 4 seconds is nearly "Fireflies" by Owl City, then its straight into great Garage guitar and drums. It has cool Garage backing vocals and the song ends with a scream. This is my favorite song and sounds to me like a cross between "Do It Clean" by Echo and the Bunnymen, and "Planet Claire" by the B-52s.

3. It's a Kill - Strong guitar and drums song with a vocal style similar to the first 2 tracks.

4. Hokey Cokey - Starts off like Wooly Bully - but then the pace doubles and we're in punk-o-mania! This song should have any listener pogoing around their room. The lyrics are based on the Hokey Pokey and sung in the same frantic style as the others.

This is a solid punk / rock EP with some Garage and New Wave influences. If you like Garage, you may like this as well. Have a listen to some of the songs at the band's MySpace page. Buy the CD at CD Baby.

The Eleventh Story

The Eleventh Story is a 60s Garage influenced band out of Virginia with a new album available at CD Baby called "Outland Road". The band consists of Tom Haun on guitars and vocals, and Todd Rosedale on bass. They present 7 songs on this CD which has Garage, Blues and Psychedelic influences.

"Snake Doctor" brings to mind the 60s pop rock of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR). "One Good Reason" is a slower blues/psyche number. "Our Time Is Now" is one of my favorite tracks. It is a Garage Rocker with a Psychedelic feel. The guitar riff is cool and Tom's vocals are trippy yet powerful. I also like "That's What I'm Here For" which is another obviously 60s Garage influenced tune. It has a light breezy feel, nice Garage pop tune! "And For Today" gets a little more gritty, and stays in a slow groove. "Out To The Highway" picks up the pace, it rocks and has tasty fuzz lead guitarwork! "Tsunami" ends the set. It's another Garage Rocker with lead fuzz.

In general, Tom's vocals are excellent and the guitar work is solid. I did notice that there is the occasional loss of sync among the instruments, and the songs seem to end abruptly. But this is a very nice Garage CD that I would recommend to all Garage Rockers!

2 New Reviews of McFadden's Parachute!

Check out these two new 5-star reviews of McFadden's Parachute, Greatest Hits, Volume 1:

A masterpiece of 60's Garage psych!!! Can't get anymore authentic than this! Homemade self taught, mostly all original compositions! Some of the best fuzz I've ever heard. wild Farfisa, psych freakouts and melodic trip music nuggets!!

This is great music. Anyone of any age who loves 1960's Garage Rock, which is leading the crowd right now...and who has turned on to Nuggets I, the best collection of 60's Garage known, would love this album. I suggest listening to the samples they have by pressing the button on the left so you get an idea of how good the music is. If you like to dance or just sit around your backyard in the summer and drink an iced tea, beer or coca-cola....this is the music for you.

Go download McFadden's Parachute, Greatest Hits, Volume 1 from Amazon.com, now! Thanks!

The Hi Fevers

I recently got a copy of the new CD from the Hi Fevers in the mail. Fege, the Hi Fever's guitarist and vocalist, sent me this CD all the way from Italy. I have known Fege for years, she used to be in the cool band, Queen Beee. I wrote about them on GarageRockRadio in the 4/14/2004 entry near the bottom of the page, here.

This six-song CD is guitar and drum based rock and roll. All tracks are 2 and 3 minutes in length. The songs show influences from Garage, Surf, Punk, and even Disco. The set starts out strong with the song "High Fever". Fege sings and one of the guys harmonize over power chords and standard rock drum beats. I imagine that this will be a crowd pleaser in live sets - I can see the fans pumping their fists and bobbing their heads in sync with the band.

Song two is "Leech". It's another strong rocker with punk influences. Next up is "Girl+". It starts out fast, with riffs borrowed from the Dead Kennedy's "Too Drunk to ****". This is a cool punker with go-go drums over the guitar break, and is probably my fave track. The last three songs are good rockers; one is an instrumental with surf stylings and the final track is a Disco-rocker slightly similar to the Kinks "Superman".

All in all, this is a good rocking CD! For more information on the Hi Fevers, check out their MySPace page.