Unless you’ve been cryogenically frozen, you can’t have missed all the hype about the garage rock scene that has suddenly exploded. Rock has returned with a ven-geance and the bad-boy, raw, elemental, sweaty sound is everywhere— a bright comet illuminating the drab and plastic music landscape of today.
Or something like that.
Of course, if you live in Brooklyn or have at least a passing interest in local bands, garage rock isn’t all that new; it’s just the national spotlight that is.
I caught Girl Harbor at Luxx’s Williams-burg on a Wednesday night. While sporting the standard suits and ties and disheveled haircuts, their energy seemed a cut above the more-produced sound I’ve been hearing lately on the radio. That also seems to be their CD’s biggest downfall— it’s not live. That sound is missing, though the energy is not.
Shine On showcases five songs, and all are different, and all pretty much rock. “Boys in Heat” is pure testosterone with a Van-Halenesque feel to it. Its chorus is repeated a lot, and that and the rough beat behind it says all the song wants to. “Spring is in the Air” is a catchy driving rhythm with a very 70s feel to it— the point in that music where the stripped-down rock began experimenting with some melodies while retaining its realness. “Sleeping to Drink” is the ballad, though it is a twisted melodramatic Ziggy Stardust and Built to Spill-sounding song about being in the bottom of a bottle. It is a full-on bleeding-hearts -lonely-drunk tune that ends in a nice damnation of sound. “Riff City” is by far the best song on the CD and is so damn groovy. Its lyrics are imaginative and perfect. “Shine On” is a bit more speed-driven with sparse in-between bass lines and the chorus is well developed.
But enough about the CD. Their live show is where the money is at. Loose and disjointed with an underlying cohesion, the band is very club-friendly and plays well to an audience. The sound produces an emotion in you and that’s always good. It makes you want to scream along.