The UV Race- Homo

On their sophomore album, Australia's the UV Race brings garage rock to a dirtier and grimier level than most. The band's loose song structures and loose playing bring a lot of, well, "character" to these recordings. There are flubbed notes everywhere, and it's all for the sake of sounding noisier. Chaos within limits is the name of the game on Homo, and I'll be dammed if these guys didn't make sounding messy feel fun as hell!

There's an obvious Velvet Underground influence flowing throughout this. A lot of these tracks feel like abridged versions of the song "Sister Ray," but there's also a lot of love if you're more of a fan of the Fall or the Stooges.

It's a raw, loud mess, but I'm too busy dancing to clean it up.

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The UV Race- "Girl In My Head"

MP3

A track from Homo: The 2nd album from Aussie garage rock outfit the UV Race.

These guys tip the scales at six members, and bring on keys and brass to make their noisy, strung out jams sound a little more refined--you know, like finely aged toilet wine. That's a good thing, because this band is reminding me of just about everyone from the Fall to the Velvet Underground. Delicious.

On "Girl In My Head," the band sounds like they just got out of bed. At first I assumed the girl in the singer's head was just a dream, but according to a list of explanations to these tracks in their album's cover art, she's real. Allegedly, it's a song about young love in all it's innocence and awkwardness. Plus, believe it or not, the organ melodies are supposed to be simulating sex! Who it turned on? Admit it!

I love the messily strummed guitar, and the lazy drums make a perfect for the setting. At first listen, this band might sound apathetic--and maybe they are in a way--but they make way too much sound to not care about anything. Sounds like they're rockin' to me.

Look for this album on In the Red.