Cherry Glazerr - Stuffed & Ready
LA quartet Cherry Glazerr released their 4th album “Stuffed and Ready” this month. It’s scruffy, garage punk with grungey 90s feels. Cherry Glazerr have stepped up their game with this as their most mature album lyrically and musically and their moodiest and gloomiest yet with resemblances to Hole, Sonic Youth and Pixies. It’s more reflective and introspective than their previous albums with political lyrical themes such as ‘Wasted Nun’ which criticises gender and societal expectations over shoegazey guitars. It’s punchy, raw and great quality guitar alt rock. Cherry Glazerr are set to play Manchester Gorilla in April, which is not to be missed.
(Tilda)
The Flesh Eaters – I Used to Be Pretty
The Flesh Eaters, the more overlooked garage punk/psychobilly contemporaries of the Gun Club and the Cramps, are not a band you would expect to still be releasing music at all, let alone the slick, soulful and vulnerable music found on their latest offering: I Used to Be Pretty. Headed by Chris Desjardins (Chris D.), the band’s heyday was in the ‘80s, crowned by the release of their 1981 album A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die: a masterpiece of morbid, rockabilly inspired punk rock. Their first album in fifteen years, I Used to Be Pretty is very much a continuation of the themes pervading the groups forty-year career: melancholy blues, lively rhythms, and searing sax lines.
The album opens with the slow-burner ‘Black Temptation’, complete with marimba and D’s parched wails, which builds into a powerful chorus. The 12-bar blues of ‘House Amid the Thickets’ continues to set the scene: a rich plethora of influences from country-western, surf, jazz and, of course, L.A. punk. D’s voice itself, showing signs of age but retaining the primal ferocity of the early days, serves as an instrument, almost transcending the American-gothic imagery of the lyrics. ‘My Life to Live’ and ‘The Green Manalishi’ are also highlights, with their anthemic and highly melodic riffs, juxtaposed with layers of reverb and grimy guitar tones. While the opening to ‘Miss Muerte’ (a revamped version of the title track from their 2004 album) may sound like it came from the Mario-kart soundtrack, the 60s powerpop-esque riffs are reminiscent of the 5-6-7-8’s. The band wears their inspirations on their sleeve, with covers from both the Sonics (‘Cinderella’) and the Gun Club (‘She’s Like Heroin to Me’) peppering the tracklist.
Closing with the extended ballad ‘Ghost Cave Lament’, I Used to Be Pretty is an introspective yet explosive, raw yet polished dive into the world of the Flesh Eaters. It stands among some of their best work and demonstrates that they are truly one of the greatest groups to come out of the L.A. punk scene.
(Rufus)