The Eastern seaboard of the US is a vast swath of territory, comprising thousands of miles, countless distinct sounds and scenes and more cultural variety then could easily be explained in a 1000 page novel. To even try and distill it into a short piece is a consummate fool’s errand. So let’s do this thing!
In all seriousness, here’s a handful of garage/punk bands that I think are awesome, all hailing a relative stone’s throw from the East Coast.
BLACK LIPS
Atlanta is a sprawling southern metropolis, which frequently maintains a hard and gritty edge. It’s a great American city and a cultural mecca, but to absolutely honest it frightens the fuck out of me. It is therefore appropriate then that I am also relatively terrified of The Black Lips. They seem to get up to a lot of crazy shit, some of which cuts against my more bourgeois sensibilities. Still and even, as a band they fucking destroy – great songs, great energy, at least some pencil thin mustaches. I think this tune is tremendous – kinda reminds me of “Still There’s Hope” by the great Young Fresh Fellows.
SPIDER BAGS
Funny story about the Spider Bags, who I think live somewhere in North Carolina? A few months ago, one of my all-time heroes Wreckless Eric came to town to play a show and I got to meet him. Here’s a picture of me and Eric, him looking confused and me looking delighted: He asked me if I had ever heard of this band the Spider Bags, who he had met the night before and was blown away by how GREAT they looked. I checked them out and I had to agree with Eric – they are good-looking guys that dress cool. And their songs are awesome. I chose this live performance so you could determine for yourselves if Spider Bags aren’t easy on the eyes and delightful on the ears.
EX HEX
Mary Timony lives here in DC, and though I’ve never met here I’ve been a fan forever, dating back to the Helium days. My feeling is that if I walk around enough I’m bound to run into her. But what then??? Anyway, I think the record she put out last year with her new band Ex Hex might just be the best thing she’s ever done. This song rules – it’s like she somehow figured out how to time travel and co-write with Marc Bolan- something I myself have tried many times, only to wake up on a park bench wearing only sandals and a sombrero. The video is hilarious too, although certain portions might offend my bourgeois sensibilities:
THE A-BONES
I’d be remiss to not mention the incredible A-Bones, a New York institution featuring Miriam Linna and Billy Miller, who also run the revered Norton Records. They first formed in 1984 and have been burning down VFW halls and fucking up lives with impunity now for three take-no-prisoners decades. Miriam used to play drums in The Cramps, and guitarist Bruce Bennett cut his punk rock teeth watching early shows by the Bad Brains while growing up in DC. He says he used to go see them when “they played at Madam’s Organ and still wore leather jackets.” I’m not even entirely sure what that means, since I would have been four and living on suburban Long Island, but the picture it paints is compelling. Bruce is also now the guitarist in the Paranoid Style, because we knew we needed a man of pedigree and distinction, but we couldn’t find one. Anyway, the last A-Bones record, which came out last year, is fucking amazing. It’s called Ears Wide Shut and was recorded in Yo La Tengo’s practice studio by James McNew. Check this shit out:
THE KING KHAN AND BBQ SHOW
As you probably know, Canada isn’t in the US. But what are you going to do – stop reading now? We’ve all come too far for that, and you should know about these guys. This is a two-man act from Montreal. Little about them is known, at least by me. I’m not exactly in a position to research their childhoods. What I will say is that they completely offend all of my bourgeois sensibilities and I absolutely love them. Get a load of this genius:
And with that, I will leave you to ponder this glorious bounty of popular song. Buy some records if you like what you hear. Buy our record while you are at it. Or steal our record and buy us a drink when we come to your town to help you party down. After all, we are nothing if not an American band.