Hey sports fans, welcome to the late news with Denver Maxx: Melbourne has a thriving garage rock scene and the latest example of its radness is The Livings Eyes LP Living Large.
With a loose, exciting and energising sound this localish act – they call Geelong home – have released an exhilarating garage rock album.
Whether they were an influence or not, this record is reminiscent of US act Wavves who rode the first wave (pun intended) of the garage/surf rock revival circa 2008. That being said, Mikey Young’s lo-fi mixing and mastering on this record and the consistently excellent songwriting puts Living Large streets ahead of anything Wavves has produced.
Dry Spell is a standout song because the band succeeds in writing slowed down pop long without losing any of the teeth of their garage rock sound. When listening to this song I couldn’t help but fall into the same super chill trance elicited by Brian Jonestown Massacre on their classic Nevertheless.
Opening track High Standards is the kind of song that if one had it cranking through their headphones while skateboarding you would probably be able to pull off a nollie hard-flip to fakey off that natural berm in the pavement out the front of your house – that’s how sick it is.
And then there’s the super slacker groove of All In Good Time that features the catchy chorus: “Can you figure it out / I can picture it now / Can ya crack the code / and be the first to know.”
This is a high quality album produced with a lo-fi technique – really worth a listen.
BY DENVER MAXX
