Biters
All Chewed Up
Underrated Records

So, are the Biters the biggest band in the world yet? I think we need to look into it. They have to be by now. Have to be. They’re circling the skies above Tokyo at this very moment in a private jet piloted by a chimp in aviator shades and a rhinestone vest, right? Well, while I wait for confirmation on this, I’m gonna try to wrap my head around another EP from Atlanta’s shock n’ awesome rock n’ roll show, because, truth be told, I’m still not over the first two yet. With album-of-the-year hardware still warm in their hands, the Biters refuse to take their cheetah-skinned shoes off of the accelerator for even a minute, intent on driving headlong into candy-land in the middle of the starry night instead of slowing down to enjoy the ride. But can you blame ‘em? Tuk and Co. are pumping out hits like a gumball machine with a broken dispenser and the resulting sugar high is beyond euphoric. Like the previous two EPs, All Chewed Up is a glam-pop junkie’s dream come true, but manages to separate itself slightly by offering a few extra songs (seven instead of the customary five) and adding Bolan (“Rock N Roll Loser”) and Poon (“[Oh Yeah] The Bitch Wants More”) to the roll call of influences that already includes Nielsen and Thunders. The Biters do it again, my friends. The question is, how many more times are they gonna do it before the year is out?

Listen to “Born To Cry” from All Chewed Up!

The Booze
At Maximum Volume
Underrated Records

With At Maximum Volume, their fourth album in the last five years, The Booze have laid down a bold declaration and appear intent on upping the ante on their easy beats, on re-inventing the cool that they re-birthed just last year. Okay, this one’s not really any louder than the ones that came before it, but the devil’s in the details, baby, and this Atlanta quintet of tight pants throw so much woozy in their bloozy that their rubber-legged approach to ripping off the Stones will force you to take a vacation from your sobriety. Stepping straight out of London’s shaggy-haired mod scene, The Booze play as smooth as ice, but take the traditional R&B/pop flavour of that era and smother it in despair and heartbreak, a down-on-your-luck sound that draws just as much from Thunders’ New York gutter rock of the 70s-80s as it does from the swank hip shake of Britain’s swingin’ 60s. Ultimately, though, The Booze are a pantheon to Mick and Keef, shining like Diamond Dogs, keen and mean with a Detroit lean, spruced up for a night out, even if it ends in tears.

Listen to “Kick Me Where It Hurts” from At Maximum Volume!

Sons of Tonatiuh
Sons of Tonatiuh
Hydro Phonic Records

Real nasty spawn, these Sons of Tonatiuh, born under a bridge in the worst part of Atlanta, left to muckrake a miserable existence from wee hellions with pockets full of coal to teenage pariahs with duffel bags full of stolen goods, now barely alive, toothless and hungry, channeling their anti-social behaviour into a rent-by-the-hour racket. This here self-titled full-length debut is what happens when street urchins demand to be heard; ugly, crusty, disease-ridden doom that’s lost all sense of control and shoved a twisted scrap of sheet metal into your leg just to get at that moldy, half-eaten sandwich in your pocket. Socially morbid, squeegee-bleed, spastic death metal with the rank odor of sewer water, fetching flies and whores, holding dominion over the unseen, chemically ruined, appalling and bloated rot, lecherous companion to all kinds of Black Cobras, Weedeaters, and Scum. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

Listen to “From Ashes” from Sons of Tonatiuh!