You've probably been hearing a lot about Kate Clover's new album  . Believe what you're hearing: this thing is an absolute treat for anyone who loves first wave punk rock, powerful pop, modern garage rock, or all of the above! If you enjoyed Clover's last LP , you can count on being everything that album was and much more. Any reader of this blog will find Clover's musical approach still hitting their sweet spot, but with this release her songwriting rises to another level. It's quite a task to channel classic punk & new wave in a way that feels genuinely current in 2024, but Clover m ..read more

Well here's a Rocktober surprise for you! The mighty Dogmatics have released a single called "I Can't Get Over You" — their first new music in a year-and-a-half! This Rum Bar Records release will pump us all up for more music from Dogmatics in 2024! What I admire about Dogmatics is that they've built a body of work in recent years (2019's EP and last year's EP) that stands on its own merits. Even if you'd never heard the group's classic releases, you'd still consider them one of the best rock 'n' roll bands going just based on what they've put out there since reuniting.  "I Can't Get Over ..read more

It's hard for me to believe that Plymouth, Massachusetts' The New Frustrations have been a band for 17 years. But the math sure works out! Brian, Rick, and Tom have been through a lot, but they've kept The New Frustrations going through three iterations of the band. Through it all, they've remained one of the most dependable power pop groups out there and one of my favorite bands, period. To say these guys are underrated would be the understatement of the year. The band has had to reinvent itself a little with each new lineup, but fundamentally you know what you're getting with The New Fr ..read more

Hey kids! Are you ready for some rock n' roll that's money-back guaranteed to set your soul on fire? Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings has brought us a killer collaboration between the mighty Friends of Cesar Romero and Colorado-based garage rockers The Manxx. FOCR is such a versatile project. You never know what you're gonna get from J. Waylon and friends. Sometimes it's perfect power pop. Other times it's punchy pop-punk or '60s-influenced melodic guitar pop. On this release, FOCR finds itself poised to blow the doors off the garage. On "You Lied (Now You're Gonna Cry ..read more

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet like the song itself. If you're a regular reader of this blog, Benny J Ward's new single needs to be in your music collection. Ward, the singer/guitarist for Perth power pop standouts , has just released his fourth solo single in four months on Cheersquad Records & Tapes. It's called "I Didn't Mean It," and it's 107 seconds of pure energy and earworm hooks. It's a little bit garage, a little bit punk rock, and a little bit power pop. That sounds like something you'd be into, right? Of course it does ..read more

Well this was a very nice surprise! I come home from vacation to discover that Rum Bar Records has dropped a new single from the Lemon Drop Gang that I didn't even know was coming out! It's like Lou sent me a welcome home present! Already responsible for my #1 ranked  of the year, Tucson's finest are back with another legitimate double A-side garage pop extravaganza. "I'm Done!" finds the band on the punk rock side of the garage door. Featuring a thrillingly furious vocal from Steph O'Halloran, this song conveys what it feels like to be 100% fed up with someone and not taking any more shi ..read more

On the heels of last year's summer smash single "Ooh Baby Ooh," the greatest of all garage rock supergroups now receives the full-length treatment from the mighty and renowned Rum Bar Records. Comprised of The Dictators' Andy Shernoff, The Fleshtones' Keith Streng and Bill Milheizer, and Waxing Poetics' Paul Johnson, The Master Plan is a long-running institution of timeless rock and roll. The newly-issued compact disc is an absolute monster of an album — as it should be since it cherry-picks ace tracks from the band's long out-of-print LPs  . Shernoff, Streng, and Johnson all contrib ..read more

It has been a while since we've heard from Dave Harrison and his band The False Positives. New single "Leave a Mark" is Harrison's first collaboration with Todd Erickson (Holy Smoke, Shake the Faith) from Rock Garden Records. Musically, this is very familiar territory for the False Positives: powerful pop by way of Boston garage rock. But this track is a big step forward production-wise. Produced by Erickson (who also plays bass and sings backing vocals), "Leaves a Mark" sounds bigger and cleaner than previous False Positives recordings. Lyrically, it's a remarkable song ab ..read more

Justine and The Unclean are a band I've liked very much over the years — as five previous reviews will attest. I was surprised when I realized that new full-length is the band's first album release in four-and-a-half years. Since late 2020, Justine Covault has been busy running her widely-beloved label Red on Red Records and putting all sorts of amazing music into the world. But she has continued to write and record with The Unclean (Janet Egan King on bass, Charles Hansen on guitar, and Jim Janota on drums). Last week a new album finally saw the light of day on Red On Red. Not surprising ..read more

What could be more perfect than Brad Marino covering Bobby Fuller? If Bobby Fuller was Buddy Holly's rightful heir, Marino is in many ways a modern-day Bobby Fuller. He plays a timeless style of rock and roll steeped in the tradition of the two-to-three minute pop song. While Fuller's life and career were tragically cut short, he left behind a treasure trove of great American rock and roll with his band The Bobby Fuller Four. While Marino was in Atlanta for Downsouth Showdown earlier this year, he and his pals Geoff Palmer and Zack Sprague recorded some new songs at Joe King's Scabby Road ..read more