Bloodshot Bill - Get Loose or Get Lost (2020)

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Montreal's legendary Bloodshot Bill strikes again and can still cut the mustard better than almost anyone else in the genre out there, the nostalgia in a bottle jukebox rockabilly croon of Bloodshot Bill is about as authentic as it gets, and his guitar is sounding so good on this one. This album just came out, but it resonates with a certain potent accuracy the sounds of 70 years ago with flourishes of modern panache within the frenzied minutia. Can't wait for the days when I can watch this man pour his sweat and heart out on some dingy bar stage in Toronto and maybe even catch a rare cover of Hasil Adkins 'No More Hotdogs'. The idea is simple, accept no substitutes and get loose or get lost!

Get Loose or Get Lost (bandcamp)

Hank Wood and the Hammerheads - Use Me 7" (2020)

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Hank Wood and the Hammerheads might be the last bastion of defence in the realms of sonic austerity, in the swirling ether of New York garage punk, amidst the grime of the sewage causeways and alleyways there is definitely a beating heart that still rides under a tattered and torn banner proclaiming rock and roll in all its authenticity, and Hank Wood and the Hammerheads have been a clear, albeit modest, part of that ticking heart.

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Use Me continues along with the bands progression in sound and explores some untrodden territory within its grooves and has moved even further away from the more feral and caustic sound of their earlier releases but what it gives up in speed and ferocity it hits back with equal force in musical heft and the hooks go so deep. If you're unfamiliar with the bands earlier releases and ignorant to the sound they helped pave, stop reading this now and go do a deep dive because it's absolutely worth it. This new record is still crass and charged full of jangling energy, but it's a different energy source, drawing from the well of The Stooges, Richard Hell, MC5, but with an attack plan that's more akin to Germany's Dean Dirg rather than the former studs. Still snotty and shooting out phlegm behind poignant if not potent words is Hank Wood and if you ever saw these guys play live you were enthralled, filled with vim and vigour and you wanted to do something about something… You just forgot what it was. Get into this, or forever accept defeat!

Use Me 7" (Bandcamp)