Knightingale – Gina
Genre: Punk, Garage Rock
The self-help industry is out of control, raising billions of dollars every year from people desperately looking for a guru or a method that will change their lives. And while some of the advice these people might receive from expensive conferences, from books, or from private counseling sessions are great, they fade in comparison to a few of the things that a lot of us take for granted.
Why do so many people flock out to fields or tiny basement rooms to see and hear folks looking to command the sound of electric guitars and loud drums? Why does the live music industry still outearn the self-help gurus? Possibly because the feels that people receive from one year of positive thinking can be replaced, easily, by three minutes of the appropriate guitar riffs.
Garage rock is simple, minimalist music that when played right, can make the performers and the listeners feel like they can achieve anything. Singapore’s Knightingale find just the right sounds on their single Gina. This is music designed to be performed in front of people lacking self-esteem. I wouldn’t be surprised if a car commercial arrests these kinds of life-affirming sounds soon enough.
Sadly Sunday – Basement Killer
Genre: Post-Punk, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Squid, IDLES, Liily, Rendez Vous
Garage-rock is the equivalent of having a fight with a stranger in an empty parking lot. There are no rules, and dirty tricks are to be expected. The only thing you cannot do is show weakness. Like fighters, those playing in garage rock aren’t judged by how they start out but by whether they manage to leave on their own two legs.
There is something confrontational about this kind of music. In many ways, this is a good thing as it quickly helps remove those that don’t have the stamina for this kind of music. What is required is not technical precision or visionary lyrics but the energy to take on an audience and tire them out.
Sadly Sunday’s Basement Killer opts to invest in a sinister kind of energy, made all the more creepy by the decision to base the song around the riff to Spirit in the sky. Remember, this is music that only needs to shake an audience through the use of loud guitars and drums. There are no other rules here! By this measure, the Swedish group captures the feeling of attending a concert in a dimly lit barnyard in which all of those in attendance might be carrying knives in their jeans.
