The Radishes
Good Machine
Self-Released
I’ve always been a sucker for dirty garage rock with a punk rock twist, the kind of muddy rock ‘n’ roll that goes perfect with an afternoon beer and a sweaty roll-around.
San Francisco/Los Angeles band The Radishes are one such band. They’ve got the naked heat of The Stooges, the bold vocal techniques of The White Stripes, and the ability to make the more metallic ends of their music sound poppy in a very Nirvana sort of way. For that matter, vocalist Paul Stinson even nails the Kurt Cobain yelp here and there (check out “Never Get Enough”).
When this band is firing on all cylinders they’re fantastic, but when they slow things down and delve into their softer side (“Wanted To”, “Killers & Romans”), they lose a large bit of their punch.
Keep the guitars turned up, and the vocals rife with that snarl! Compare this pair of pseudo ballads to the psychobilly charged “Drink With the Dead” and those songs will fall flat on their asses!
Perhaps the most impeccably perfect song on Good Machine is “Hook Me Up.” From the opening line of I’ve seen the end of the world/ and I’m not impressed I’m drawn in, and the simple, yet driving drumbeat just pushes me further in. This is a single if ever I heard one!
