Take a pinch of punk, crack a few Strokes, flavor heavily with garage and mix it all with a ton of The Sweet, and you’ve got The Blakes, who just released an EP on the great Light In The Attic records. Formed by two brothers with weird names, Garnet and Snow Keim, and drummer Bob Husak, make tight, fun club music. Every tune on the EP is great party music, in the spirit of Johnny Lives!, The Black Keys, and other great retro bar-bands.
The kick off track, Magoo, which I sense must be awesome live, has a baby-talk chorus in which he mumbles some scat (“gamma gamma gamma lamma Magoo, I gotta getcha to mooâ€) and then snarls sexual threats (another version of the chorus is “gamma gamma gamma lamma Magoo, the only girl in the world do watcha wanna doâ€). I’m not really sure if the Keim brothers have a bovine fetish or what, but this song is a hot rocker on a par with similar Ramones tunes. Another stand-out track, Village Green, recalls Oasis and the
psychedelic 60s (while the title shouts out another obvious influence on the band—The Kinks). Pistol Grip has a booming bassline and a slow grind hook. Die has shades of The Beatles in it. Hell, every track is great. This is one of those rare submissions to this corner that I hear and it instantly knocks my socks off. Hailing from Seattle, we all should be looking forward to the power trio’s full-length due in October.
