TOEHEADS Basement demo

There was a point in time where if you heard something describe as garage rock, you had a general idea of what it would most likely sound like. Over the years though, the size of that umbrella and what is underneath has grown quite larger. There's stuff out there, for example, that basically some quasi singer/songwriter folk stuff that doesn't really swing or move that is being called garage rock these days. A lot of times seems to boil down to some tape hiss in the final product. I believe that is what some people wittier than myself have called the Burger Record effect.

Unruly. Unhinged. Greasy hair and zits. A snarl and a stomp. Bedraggled. That's what I think should be expected when throwing the term around. Not a musical version of LARPing either where it's playing some traditionalist/purist role where everything past a particular year over 5 decades ago is scoffed either. Having it armed with some punk rock explosives is the way to knock people off their feet as far as I'm concerned.

With everything pushed into an absolutely blown out red, Michigan's Toeheads deliver on those expectations. Three chords all rattled and covered with muck while howling at anything that moves is the band's modus operandi and, as distortion bomb that's "Floating Dust", the greasy fingers zig-zagging of "Grad" and how "Mr. Fish" violently hammers out a beat, make such procedures victorious.

The band could crank out such short mud-caked knuckle dragger after knuckle dragger to please those of the shortest attention spans but they also well aware that even subhumans can't survive constantly on the same kind of dirt alone. "Going Steady" boards the jangle train loaded with gasoline and is headed towards a gigantic fireball while "Windows (Brain Fry)" and "Laser Cannon" are like doing a hangover crawl toward more of a dog that bit ya.

Find out more about what creeps in the cellar at their Facebook page.

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