12th November 2009

Audio with 10 plays

Growlers - Heehaw Stomp
Are You In or Out? (Everloving Records)

Since I started this blog, I’ve reviewed a few psychedelic-country-garage-pop/rock groups, and most of them have been a little boring, honestly.  Lots of organs with tremolo, reverbed vocals, and jangly guitars, but with no real substance.  Growlers succeed where these bands fail.  Their new record, Are You In Or Out?, is full of sweet lines, awesome hooks, great lyrics … I almost forgot what the point of this stuff was, but they really took me back by doing the 60’s thing well.

I get the idea that these guys like to enjoy themselves; there are several short (17- to 77-second) tracks that show off a sense of humor, while still being kind of catchy, even with barely any time to get caught. Their MySpace has some neato animated GIF’s:

The best tracks, in my opinion, are “Tijuana,” which is a drippy-guitar surf slow-jam; “Wet Dreams,” which is about what you think it’s about; and “Wandering Eyes,” which does that sitar-psych thing, but in a manner which I actually find interesting.  My favorite, though, is “Heehaw Stomp,” which has such an amazing vocal hook, I can’t get past it yet (see the top of this piece).

I guess my only complaint is that, every time I read “Growlers,” I can’t help but realize they were so close to “Growlithes.”

Tagged: better living through chemistry