Hell's Belles

Vintage sounds, dusty grooves, and 21st-century freaks.

Sick Californian surf psych.  Brilliant videos.  Shitty school bus.  What’s not to love?

The Growlers will be playing at End of the Road on 2 Sept.  A release on FatCat sister label Palmist Records is apparently on the cards.  Until then:

[BUY]

One of my favourite new-bands-that-sound-like-old-bands:

Anyone else find the term chillwave completely nauseating?  Not that The Mint Chicks are even remotely related musically to the four or so bands that make up that, um, scene.  I just find it criminal that people cream themselves over drab synth wallpaper when fucked-up genius like Bad Buzz faces near-violent indifference, at least in the UK.

OK, so The Mint Chicks have won every conceivable accolade in their native New Zealand, but while people up on this side of the globe think NZ is a cracking vacation spot, when it comes to music in the northern hemisphere, “#1 in New Zealand” might as well be “#1 in Atlantis”.

Bad Buzz is the title track of The Mint Chicks’ new EP, released digitally on an amazing specimen of a USB stick via NZ-based digital store MusicHype (sadly, stick is sold out but the music is still available as a download). Sonically, it’s a wash of sunshiney fuzzy hooks – think the Zombies-meets-Partridge Family, with canyon-sized reverb and tape distortion.  Bliss.

The Mint Chicks – Bad Buzz by hells-belles

MP3: The Mint Chicks – Bad Buzz

Reasons to love Thomas Truax:

• He plays an instrument of his own making called The Hornicator.
• He’s been described as “Like Tom Waits, presenting kids TV.”
• He wrote a song about Joe Meek’s attempt to warn Buddy Holly of his impending death called “Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly”. Naturally.
• He used to be an animator on Celebrity Deathmatch.
• He is FREAKIN’ AWESOME.

Listen to / download a track from his new album, Sonic Dreamer. Then buy said album because, like I said, it’s FREAKIN’ AWESOME.

Thomas Truax – Beehive Heart by charmfactory