'Spending Cash, Talking Trash'

I’ve been listening a lot lately to the broad genre called garage rock. It’s the only place left in rock ‘n’ roll that seems to be fun and carries the DIY and “fuck it” attitude of the early days of punk.

Little Steven’s Underground Garage, on SiriusXM, has put me onto so much new music it’s mind boggling. Their play list is remarkable; in one set you’re likely to hear the Ronettes, the Raconteurs, and then some garage band you otherwise never would have known existed.

Such a musical epiphany struck me yesterday. Through the course of the day I had heard several new – and great sounding – bands. Exactly the sort of thing I signed up for. One such band was England’s Thee Exciters. And as NME says, there is a rule that “any band who spell ‘The’ with two ‘e’s will always be beer-soaked garage rockers.”

Thee Exciters hold up their end of the deal. Their first full-length album, Spending Cash, Talking Trash, came out last year on Dirty Water Records. The album crushes dirty blues and punk into a Detroit-style grimy collection of some of the best garage rock I’ve heard in a while.

By way of introduction, Thee Exciters formed in Southampton, England, in 2003, where they were originally called The Mood. The original lineup included Lee Tea on bass and Ken Robshaw on drums. Ken left the band and was replaced by Richie Walker in 2006. Lee left in 2007, moving to Malmo, Sweden, where he formed The Branded. The current line-up is: Paul le Brock, vocals; Justin Cunningham, guitar; Alex Tapps, bass; and Walker on drums.

When (not if ) you decide to get Spending Cash, Talking Trash, you’ll find it at eMusic or you can go to Thee Exciters’ MySpace for more info. Here’s the title track from the album.

Spending Cash, Talking Trash.mp3

Labels: garage rock, punk

posted by aikin @ 1:51 PM