Lousy Sue Artless Artifacts LP
Not that long ago, I wanted to get out of the house to write some reviews, so I headed to one of Indianapolis’s many millennial-ass coffee shops. It was a nice day, so I’d picked one that I knew had lots of outdoor seating. Only when I got there, I found that they were hosting some sort of crafts market. The outdoor seating I was counting on had been pushed aside to make a space for bands to play to the people shopping for artisanal soap or whatever. Not ideal! But the middle-aged folks who were setting up when I arrived looked vaguely punk, so I decided to stick around for a minute and see what they were about. They played inoffensive garage punk—a mix of originals that were solid enough and a tasteful selection of non-obvious covers. It was actually kinda good, and I found myself really enjoying it. Enough to remember the name of the band that was playing or what any of the members looked like? Apparently not! But they may as well have been LOUSY SUE, an Indianapolis-based garage punk act that I’d never heard of until now. This LP, their second release after a 2019 EP, is fifteen tracks—fourteen originals and one BUCK BILOXI cover(!)—of straightforward garage punk. It primarily sounds like one of the less memorable Rip Off Records acts with access to better recording equipment, but you’ll also hear some interesting influences bleeding in, like LAMPS, OBLIVIANS, or maybe CARBONAS. It’s pretty good!