The Bad Beats - Off The Hook (2019) [Hi-Res]

Garage rock is alive and well in 2018. It lives in the alleys of East Vancouver, born and bred in the traditions of the Pacific Northwest and raised on Pebbles and Nuggets. Armed with a Fender Telecaster, an Acetone organ, and a soulful frontman whose harmonica work might send Little Walter to AA, it finds many new converts and takes no prisoners. It is The BAD BEATS.

Following on the success of 2016’s “His Vengeful Hand”, incendiary local shows and a handful of recent tour dates on the other side of the Atlantic, The Bad Beats serve up a dozen high-octane blasts on their second Soundflat release, mixed in mono for your lo-fi pleasure.

Carrying forth a torch ignited over half a century ago by groups like The SPARKLES and 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS, and passed forward
through progenitors PLAN 9 and The MONOMEN, The BAD BEATS keep the garage rock flame blazing.

Fifty years ago ‘the fuzz’ tossed John Sinclair into jail and Roky Erickson into electro-shock therapy for possessing marijuana. EST became a banned medical practice, marijuana just became legal in Canada, and ‘fuzz’ is the pedal between ‘tremolo’ and ‘reverb’ on The BAD BEATS effects pedalboard.

Eight blistering originals complement the four covers on ‘Off the Hook’, including the ROLLING STONES title track and a haunting version of the TOWNES VAN ZANDT ballad ‘Waiting Around To Die’. The lone instrumental, ‘Gooseback Machine’, is a straight-up driving blues jam featuring a guest appearance by Canadian ex-pat Spencer Evoy (MFC CHICKEN) on sax.

The album fills out with a sonic barrage of three-minute garage shock morsels guaranteed to keep your head bobbing and knee jerking. Hey, Hey, My, My, Garage Rock will never die. Or is it My. My, Hey, Hey, Garage Rock is here to stay? Either way, long live the BAD BEATS!