Album Review: The Control Freaks - "Get Some Help"

 

San Francisco natives the Control Freaks are signed to Dirty Water records and that should probably give you a good indicator of the sort of territory we're in here - 13 tracks, 27 minutes and an album that fair zips by. However, as we've mentioned before in reviews of bands like this, garage punk has become a pretty overpopulated field of late and the last year or so has seen a number of bands like the Courettes and Muck & The Mires who've let an over-reliance on sounding "authentically '60s" get in the way of having genuinely good tunes.

I'm happy to report though that the Control Freaks definitely don't fall into this category - there's an enjoyable scuzzed-up roughness to Get Some Help that puts it closer to the territory of bands like the Cramps and the D4 than anything else while the male and female duelling vocals bring back good memories of the Rezillos. The gleefully knuckleheaded likes of Moron and Riot see them coming across as a Californian answer to Amyl & The Sniffers or the Chats and that's not a bad place to be at all while Don't Trust is pure snarling venom.

Sure, variety isn't necessarily the Control Freaks' strong point but when you've got the sheer energy and punk fury that this lot have, it's a bit difficult to get bored especially given how quickly this album blasts through. For those into the scummier end of the garage punk genre, this is definitely well worth an investigation.

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NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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