The Pineapple Beach Experience – They Remember Us (Shakin’)
Genre: Garage-rock, Alternative rock
I hate having to figure out the world. I’m too lazy to read the instructions when buying any new gadget and can’t be bothered with the label on food bought in the supermarket. I’m lazy, and I know it. And, yet, my job involves trying to figure out what would-be rockstars mean to say in their songs. Most of the time, with little to lash onto, I am forced to invent meaning where there isn’t.
This is why I absolutely love bands that spare me this suffering. I, like most people whose senses are intact, love rock n’ roll that hits you and doesn’t give you time to think about what’s going on. I love rock n’ roll. That feels like being on a wild ride that might endanger your life. Subtlety and subtext are good, but it is best to keep those for novels studied in fancy schools, not here.
The Pineapple Beach Experience’s “They Remember Us (Shakin’)” is all excitement, humor, and no subtlety. It features a mumbling vocal hook that might have The Who’s Roger Daltrey contemplate putting off the requirement for a while yet. The song is fun, confident, and designed to be played while inebriated in front of an audience of similarly drunk retro-rock lovers. I enjoyed it and didn’t have to think of the reasons why throughout the entire track.
Le Garage – Hell and Back
Similar artists: The Black Keys, DADDY LONG LEGS
Genre: Blues
Do you think that your favourite rock or blues guitarists practice with their amps turned off? Do you think that they consider the noise levels that their playing will produce? I doubt it, and assume that part of the reason why someone turns pro at playing rock n’ roll is the ability to crank out tunes at mind-bending levels without ever having to get a dressing down for it.
But songs by those kinds of artists can’t just be loud. Have you seen live bands who only do loud? They tire out even their greatest fans over a few songs. No, no, bands need to learn to do soft in order for the crushing, loud parts to echo out even more. Songs need dynamics before they can feel devastatingly boisterous.
Le Garage understand the dynamics of electrified blues-rock better than most. “Hell and Back” is proof of that. When the guitar riffs and drums truly kick, it feels like they were constructed with the goal of knocking down old buildings. But it’s what the band does in between those parts, the way that they set up the tension, makes you hold your breath in anticipation. I suspect La Garage’s rehearsal room is somewhere out in the countryside with no neighbours for miles and miles.
