I saw this record in record shop in Cologne few months ago and I didn't buy it. Don't ask me why - I was just stupid. Later I heard their song on Bad Afro compilation and I wanted to kill my self for not buying this LP. You can't find it anywhere in Holland so I was in panic. But lucky me, I got it through the mailorder. Laundrettes are definitely my new favorite girl r'n'r band. Not only that they have great songs - and I really mean it - all songs on this LP are fucking killers, but they have great lyrics too. To be honest this is probably the first girl group that really got me with their lyrics. No more "girl did me wrong" - it's "guy did me wrong" this time. These are 100% r'n'r girls who "follow their own beat" in search for "rebel love". I can't choose which one is my favorite here. Music is really great mash of r'n'r, beat, garage and surf - they just took the best from each and mixed it together. Only, I forgot to mention that there is one guy in band - Jimmy the Greek on guitar. I hope Launderettes will want to do interview so we can all find out more about them. In the meantime check their website and get this LP - it's a killer!!!!
 

Nice sleeve - in style of "Yellow Submarine", only black and white. Little Bare Big Bear has members of one of the greatest 90s garage band - Nuthins. Music is different, it's some kind of hard psych pop rock. My fave is B side "Dr. Morgan's Panacea" - really nice hallucinating psych pop.
 

When I saw this 7", I thought - funny looking guys. When I saw that there are 22 songs, I thought - shit this will be something stupid. And I was very very wrong. I love this 7". If it wasn't released in 2001 it would for sure hit no.1 on my top list for this year. Songs are very short as you can guess. It's fast lo-fi trash psycho punk. When I say psycho punk I mean crazy no brains shit. It's good they wrote the lyrics 'cos they are great and it's hard to understand them when they sing so fast. I like these guys' attitude - they think like me - they hate everything and everybody (hippies, mods, poetry, art, school, religion, ...). The lyrics are just fantastic. To be honest I like the lyrics soooooooo much that I would write them all down for you, but I won't because you have to buy this 7"EP - it's just fucking great. My favorites on A side are: "I Hate My Generation" and "As The Good Christian I Am" and on B side: "Today I kill, Tomorrow I Die". But don't get me wrong the other songs are great too. This is what punk is about. I thought toadies kids don't have any idea about punk, but I was wrong about that too. You guys rule - I want to hear more!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Mando Diao are from Sweden and they play some kind of mix between raw garage punk and brit pop. Try to imagine Hives meets Blur/Supergrass. They have 2 singers: Gustaf and Bjoern - you know Beatles trick (Paul and John). Well just like Beatles, Gustaf is more like John - his songs are more garage and punky (more my type of stuff) while Bjoern is more like Paul (only he plays lead guitar and not bass) - you can guess that Bjoern sings more brit pop type of songs. "Sheepdog" is really great song - very catchy garage punk with good riff and nice chorus. "Sweet Ride" is not so bad, but vocal is too poppy for my taste. "Motown Blood" is again garage punk while "Mister Moon" is quite good mid tempo brit pop tune with hit potential. Unfortunatelly the rest of A side is too pop for me. B side begins also good. I like "P.U.S.A." - really great chorus. I also like "Bring 'em In". B side is a bit better to me. Unfortunately the last song is really the worst one - some boring ballad. Record has nice fold out cover - and girls watch out, these guys look much better than ugly assholes from Oasis.
 

I'm really not into 2-man bands - after hearing some boring ones. So when I got this LP I thought that I'm probably not gonna like it. But I guess if you have good songs, it doesn't really matter if you're 1, 2 or 10 man band. I love these guys. I just tried to figure out what is A side of this LP, but I couldn't. Anyway, as I said these guys know how to write songs and make 2-man band sound really great and interesting. It's primitive, wild, crazy and drunken country-blues-r'n'r with mad man vocal and great lyrics - this LP is some kind of story about living on the farm land. Ok I found A side. It starts with "Say Cheers To Marvin And Buddy". So guys - "CHEERS"!!! I must not forget to mention that I got 2 mini bottles of "Original Black Forest Kirschwasser" together with this LP. 2nd song is even better - crazy bottle-breaking r'n'r - "Rumble In The Graveyard Bar". It reminds me of Lightning Beatman - only it's not about wrestling, but drinking. On "Hangign Tree" they have guest musician - Klaus Halupczok on sax. "Drink And Drive" - the title says it all - drinking, puking, driving on. Great song! "Waterloo Boy" is more bluesy. B side starts fast and rockin' with "One Hot Night In Millau" - I hope I got the title of the song good, it's a bit messy on this record sleeve. "The Cutest Thing" is probably my favorite here. Not that it's musically better than other songs, I just love the lyrics - "she can't cook, she can't love, she ain't worth a dime, Lord I wish that woman was anybody's else but mine". "Polka 45" is just great and dirty r'n'r. This LP ends a bit strange - "There Ain't No Light" sounds like totally fucked up Bad Seeds with drunken Nick Cave - hahaha. I'm not gonna write abut each song on this LP. You must try to get it somehow. It won't be easy 'cos it's released on small local label. But if you, somehow, manage to get it, make sure to have enough booze around before you put it on your record player.