Yesterday was a good day for any fan of modern garage rock, with both the release of Reigning Sound’s delayed Love and Curses and the premiere of the second track from the upcoming debut by garage rock super group The Almighty Defenders.
Reigning Sound just happens to be one of my favourite bands from the 2000s (and one of the best garage rock bands of all time) and Love and Curses is their fourth long-awaited studio album. It’s been four years since the release of the blistering garage rock masterpiece Too Much Guitar, and Love and Curses sounds closer to their 2002 album Time Bomb High School, with Greg Cartwright’s vocals at the front, rather than buried under a wall of guitars as it was on Too Much Guitar. Cartwright hasn’t lost his songwriting touch and his vocals are as good as ever. You shouldn’t need any more reason to track this down but we’ll make it easy for you: the whole album is streaming here (just scroll down and click on the album cover).
The Almighty Defenders is a collaboration between King Khan, BBQ (aka Mark Sultan) and The Black Lips, so we’re talking modern garage rock royalty here. The first track, entitled “Bow Down and Die”, to appear from their upcoming self-titled debut (out September 22 on Vice), premiered on Stereogum about a month ago and yesterday Pitchfork premiered “Cone of Light”. Both tracks are excellent and their debut is shaping up to be one of the exceptions to the super group rule.
