Punk like The Stooges or The Black Lips. Retro like Nobunny or The Ramones. Psychedelic like The Standells. Grungy like The Electric Prunes or Wolfmother. Splinters and blisters of songs, like “The Park (Dig It),” that could and should have gone on longer. Fully formed but bizarre ballads that sound like they were recorded in someone’s basement. Sudden bursts of crispy fuzz. This, dear readers, is The Jacuzzi Boys. The Florida band has released singles now and again, but it wasn’t until the end of the summer that they finally hit us in the mouth with a full record. And how fucking cool is it?
Well, I’ve already counted the ways, but I can add a few more. Many songs clock in at less than two minutes, and most combine all the various moods and genres that punk music has gone through since Iggy Pop began bleeding on stage: Surfer, psychout, grunge, fuzz (lots of fuzz), lo-fi, druggy, three-chord pop . . . The only one missing, really, is hardcore. Most folks think of punk as three chords and a bunch of shouting or vocal effects, but Jacuzzi Boys have such a studious love of the genre that they can move seamlessly through its subtle style variations, all the while sounding laid back enough that this album could have come up in the 1960s as easily as today. In short: This album is a party.
