We garage rock fans are easy to please: sounding like a bunch of hyperactive, loud and snotty mid-60's teenagers from Hicksville USA isn't something serious rock musicians should aspire to, yet it's all we expect from garage rock revival bands: if you want to make us happy, a love of all 60's retro things and a bit of fire in your belly will suffice. For all intents and purposes, then, the Double Naught Spys (apparently a different group from the correctly spelled Double Naught
Spies) are a quintessential neo-garage band: their 60's schtick is authentic as shit, production is suitably raw and snappy, and new compositions sound like they belong to those
Pebbles and
Back From The Grave compilations that collected the wildest and most untamed 60's garage rock bands. Everything was recorded live on-the-fly and with no overdubs or studio effects. It all sounds authentic, from the primitive pounding of "You Better Tell Me Now", "I Hate Love" and "I Can't Understand" to the wild yelps and frantic guitar of "Right Where I Wanna Be" and "Tryin' My Best", surf guitars of "Side-Swiped", harmonica-driven R&B of "Mad At Me" and "2-Timin' Baby" or the melodic choruses of (still rocking quite hard) "Tears From My Eyes" and "Won't Be The One". The covers (The Benders' "You Can't Tame Me", Rockin' Ramroads "She Lied", and surf instrumental "Outer Limits '66") rival the originals' power, and fit seamlessly among the new songs, a testament to their dedication in bringing the 60's spirit back. It's strange to think that we are now further removed from the time of this garage revival band than they were from the time they were actually trying to revive. Or, more probably,
I'm just
old: I've filed both the 1990's and 2020's under "modern times", and the 60's under "mythic past", but is it really so? Think about it: can any time before the internet (let alone smartphones)
really be considered modern? Yet the
world wide web only went online on August 1991, a few months before the
Double Naught Spys released Goin' Nowhere With... on the Texan label Rockadelic Records in a limited edition of 500 copies. It was later picked up by German indie label Music Maniac, to be re-released with the addition of 2 bonus tracks/outtakes ("Slow Down" from the Hamburg-era Beatles and Cramps-like "And She Said Yes")
as part of their Teen Trash series. This series sported artwork by Rudi "Action" Protrudi of The Fuzztones, and was comprised by 14 volumes by garage revival bands throughout the world - the DNS, incidentally, come from Connecticut, USA. Most, but not all, of the bands were as faithful 60's copyists as the DNS were. I own the (almost complete) series, so expect to read about more volumes in this blog.
**** for Tryin' My Best, Won't Be The One
*** for You Better Tell Me Now, Right Where I Wanna Be, Tears From My Eyes, Mad At Me, Can't Tame Me, Now She's Cryin', Outer Limits '66, And She Said Yes, 2-Timin' Baby, Side-Swiped, I Hate Love, I Can't Understand, She Lied, Slow Down
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