- Label: 'Property Of The Lost Records'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '29.11.24'- Catalogue No: 'LOST045'
Our Rating:
First off Thee Headshrinkers sound exactly like a band with Thee in there name, which is a very good thing indeed. Of course they record at Ranscombe Studios in Rochester Kent, Deep in the Kent delta this Hastings based trio, were produced by Jim Riley. The Headshrinkers are Rob Stocking, Gino Balaclava and Stiv Doll Head who met on JoinMyBand.com that's the musical equivalent of Grndr apparently.
Side One opens with Johnny who is not coming home, he's met a messy end, signified by estuary sounding garage rock overwhelming him.
Dallas Texas a place forever imprinted for what happened that day in 1974 rather than November 63, the episodes in this tale punctuated by salvos of dirty guitars and clattering drums, taking them way out west to San Francisco in 75, searching for the in crowd.
Motorbike is low slung biker garage rock, for cruising in the middle of the night with your lights off at 80mph, taking me back to a drive on the M2 through Rochester in the middle of the night, hallucinations getting out of hand.
Derivative uses some typical garage rock guitar parts, Bass nicked from a 60's surf rock cheat sheet, with deadly lyrics added to flesh it out, about another man with a gun in his hand, just pick your fave tune on that subject, hey presto they have another golden, memorable tune.
Save Your Life is solid advice, only you can really look after yourself in this wicked world, snarl into the microphone like your own life depends on it, Play the bass like a heartbeat, shake and shimmy all over the place.
Going Down is what your doing, you may be innocent, but in songs like this, being fitted up is par for the course, desperate, louche they'll do what they have to for survival, they don't care who gets done over in the process.
Side 2 opens with the albums main single Sunday Driver an Undertones style, speedy new wave evocation of early Fall insouciance, for all the tragic goings on, that happen to or around that awful Sunday Driver, they just want rid of them road rage uncontained.
The King Is Dead long live simple garage rock records, vocals that could only be improved coming through a loud hailer, to get the right inflection of Mark E Smith sneer this seems to be aiming for.
Mutha Fucka With A Chainsaw doesn't sound quite angry enough, almost as if he's casually going to pull that cord and let rip, if he can be bothered, while we all figure out twenty Garage rock classics to have used this same riff.
Head On uses a Bo Diddley beat to deal out the advice to get your Head On straight while you still can.
Sweet Caroline is thankfully not the unbelievably popular tune you may now have in your head, this one just loves munching down the amphetamines like smarties, going on a rampage all over town, doing the things that might send you and your pretty face to hell in a K-hole.
The album closes with Travellin Man who believes he's really a Manish Boy at heart, rip roaring express train guitars, take us to the deep south were the hanging tree is haunting their nightmares, in case they end up strung up at the end of the guitar frenzy.
Find out more at https://theeheadshrinkers.bandcamp.com/album/head-cheese https://www.facebook.com/squeezemyhead https://lnk.to/HeadCheese
