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The Shook-Ups – Bad Reception (Soundflat Records)

The Shook-Ups - Bad Reception (Soundflat Records)
The Shook-Ups – Bad Reception (Soundflat Records)
Note that I independently write and research everything in this article. But it may contain affiliate links.

Don’t believe anyone that tells you there are no good bands around these days. The Shook-Ups have a new album out called Bad Reception and to be honest, it’s excellent.

This is psychy ’60s garage for the modern era. In fact, scrub that, it’s hardly been updated at all. It could have come kicking and screaming out of the mid to late-60s. If you didn’t know they were a new band, you’d presume this was some lost album dig up from some obscure label archive, seeing the light of the day for the first time in decades.

The truth is very different. The Shook-Ups, as regular readers will know, come from the Liverpool / Wigan area, made up of refugees from other bands treading a similar furrow over the past few years.

Relentless organ and fuzzy guitar mix it with catchy choruses and an authenticity of sound you rarely hear from a modern recording. Someone has paid attention to the tiniest details – and it really shows when you play this back.

As far as stand out tracks are concerned, hard to pick just one as all 12 tracks on this album hit a decent level. But opener New Confession has a familiarity to it right from the first listen and Psychotropic Nightmare has an opening guitar line you’d kill for.

But don’t take my word for it, check it out on Spotify below to hear it for yourself. If you like that, go buy the album, details of which can be found at the Facebook page. They play live regularly too, see that same Facebook page for details of that.

Bottom line, great album – if you’re a garage fan, you’ll love it.

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