Now for a new band few have heard of from Rotterdam, Netherlands called The Madd. They follow in the tradition of European mid 60’s garage-merseybeat revivalist like The Mellowmen, Bronco Bullfrog and The Winnerys. I can’t tell you much about them cause I don’t speak Dutch, however this local reviewer does and you’ll hear all the English you need to know in the review. The opening track, “I Know” is a dead ringer for The EasyBeats and the follow up track “The Days Mind The Time” is a brilliant Beatlesque mid tempo charmer. “Good Evening Girl” is another gem full of catchy riffs, fast tempos and solid harmonies. The band plays really tight, so it doesn’t feel like a simple retro-retread and the first half is damn near perfect. And unlike some European retro bands you won’t hear any Dutch accents. On the albums second half, a little more psychedelic feel is added with Farfisa organs to “I Loved You” and “If You Don’t Come Back” and you’ll hear bits of The Seeds and Strawberry Alarm Clock here. By the albums end, we go the full garage monty along the lines of The Creation or The Pretty Things on “Love” and the theme “We’re Pretty Quick.” But that doesn’t change the fact that each song here is an soothing salve to retro pop enthusiasts like myself. Fans of the above bands and classic power pop simply must get this now. It’s extra cheap on AimeStreet ($3.30) so you have no excuses.
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A good song is a good song. With my first 'proper' garage band, the Ace-Tones, at first we did all the obvious covers and got a lot of flak for it, although we only played the songs we loved (and weren't interested in coolness competitions). We also did "We're Pretty Quick", like so many other bands…
Later on we dug up more obscure songs and added originals to the set list, but the most important thing remained: is it a good song, and do we love to play it as if we wrote it the night before?
That's something I like to hear in a band – even if they play the three-million-seventeen-thousand-and-fifty-fourth version of Strychnine. It will always be new to someone.
(The band I'm in now also plays We're Pretty Quick sometimes – as We're Flying Tygers, as a matter of fact…)
Easybeats song is actually penned for Ausssie pop star Johnny Young.
Love this album. I don't care if these are covers or not.
Thanks Dave, it just goes to show that if you pick obscure enough nuggets you'll fool most people (me included) into thinking these are originals. I'm slipping dude!
Aaron, most of the songs on this album are covers of obscure '60s Nuggets-esque tracks. In fact, you mention that "I Know" sounds like The Easybeats-it so happens that "Good Evening Girl" is an Easybeats cover.
I believe five of the 15 tracks are band-written, and the rest are covers. On their first album, all 11 tracks were covers of similar ilk.