Reviews

Cheersquad

The Fadeaways Pretty Wild LP

This is like the ninth or tenth full-length—one of two they put out in 2024!—from this long-running Tokyo act that at times borders on garage rock cosplay. Looks like it was assembled to support a tour of Australia, but it’s all new music: eleven tracks of straightforward garage rock, played loud as hell. They’re not tossing out any curveballs, so this is more or less interchangeable with all their other releases. But I don’t think they’d have it any other way. Regardless, it’s fun as hell. It’s also wild how good the recording sounds—it’s got that same recorded-inside-a-nuclear-reactor vibe that you get with a TEENGENERATE or GUITAR WOLF record, but also somehow comes across crystal clear. More bands need to get in touch with this sound engineer!

The Stems Mushroom Soup: The Citadel Years LP

While these guys delivered a deliberately ’60s-sounding psychedelic/garage experience, they were actually an Australian band from the ’80s. They were a big deal back then. If you’re a fan of fuzz and organ and your sensibilities are firmly rooted in the garage, you’ll latch onto this one. That’s a sound that can be sort of hit or miss with me, mostly because I find it’s easy to do a poor job of it. Not so here. This is good shit. Eighteen cuts is definitely pushing my attention span, but it doesn’t come at the expense of quality. Excellent record.