Sheek The Shayk
Hour Of The Seventh Moon
Laughing Outlaw
Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the appeal of garage band music to the musician, since it has a rather limited following in the record buying public. Certainly, there’s a low barrier for entry: a thrift shop guitar, a stolen drum kit and parents old and deaf enough to permit “rehearsals” out behind the Toyota. If the neighbors don’t kill you, you have at least a small shot at fame and fortune. There are good garage bands, and bad ones. Sheek the Shayk is in the better-than-average pile. They clearly hearken back to the psychedelic days that were old news when these guys were conceived – the graphics, lyrics and fuzz tone Les Paul all are in place. The press kit even points out their intentional similarity to the Nuggets series of LP’s, so while I can’t guarantee these guys have actually seen God on the yellow acid, they act that way on disc.
Sonically, the band has it all in place. Pseudo Hendrix guitars open “69 BC,” and gently melt away to a subtle yet intense bass line. “Daughters of the Revolution” leans ever so slightly towards the T-Rex sound, and other tunes could be identified with the pillars of rock. None of this is to imply that this is a slavish cover band – they take the roots of rock and allow them to grow in a controlled yet unconstrained direction. The result is a listenable, maybe even drivable sound suitable for beater cars or a party, but only the sort of party where you don’t expect any chicks to show up. Pound down a sixer and crank these guys, they aren’t that bad, even if they released a disc with just enough digital crap on it to require a black marker to listen on your Dell laptop juke box.
Laughing Outlaw Records: http://www.laughingoutlaw.au/
