Monday, February 6, 2012

The Doozies Release One


Straight out of the garage and into the gutter come The Doozies. These garage punkers consisting of just two members, the Van Dusen Brothers, record, produce and play everything themselves. Their recently released album is a severely raw, under-produced lo-fi affair that sounds as if it were recorded on half a four-track with a blown channel and the inability to regulate volume. These foibles and apparent lack of quality makes this debut album absolutely amazing.

With choppy riffs, distorted production, screams, bashed drums, and surprising melodies in odd places The Doozies pack a wallop of garage rock into 38 minutes. The Van Dusen brothers tap into their inner primal rock star and crank out churling riffs that chug along only occasionally taking time to catch their breath. With most songs lasting under two minutes this is a live fast die fast kind of record with the brothers sloppy but great, guitar work blazing the trail to the finish line.

The Doozies sounds like it's going to fall apart at any minute. The production sounds as if the whole thing may or may not have been recorded on an old BASF cassette from 1989 and rolls and rolls of duct tape were used to hold it all together. Despite that sounding horrible, that's half of its charm; it’s a mess of a recording but so incredibly honest how could you not like it? The Doozies are rock and roll in its purest unrefined state and they are awesome. They're rawer than sushi and have better songs. Imagine the Sonics in a bluesy fist fight with The White Stripes on a five dollar budget and you kind of have an idea of where The Doozies are coming from.

Honest to goodness rock and roll doesn't get much better than this. The Doozies pack a punch of unrefined riffs and coarse melodies throughout their debut and it's those characteristics that help the band stand out. This is brotherly love as recorded on a Radio Shack tape deck with a cracked cassette and it's awesome.

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