Atomic Garage

Album Review

Neither obscurity (nor folding labels like PVC), nor change in musical fashion, nor gloom of night (or the club scene) can alter L.A.'s Droogs from their appointed rounds: It is their solemn duty to record warped, tough-sounding, barbed-wire psychedelic rock and boppin' bubblegum pop undercut by Roger Clay's startling, spacy, scraped-fuzz guitar. (Got news for Jesus & Mary Chain, Spaceman 3, and Flying Saucer Attack devotees: Droogs were at this while the Reid brothers and company were in grade school, going back to a string of lo-fi singles decades ago before that term existed — see the 1987 German retrospective Anthology.) When you hear singer Ric Albin, you still hear the MC5, the Yardbirds, Howlin' Wolf, the Seeds, the Kingsmen, Pebbles/Nuggets groups, and everyone else whose every lyric meant no-nonsense (yet cool) business. And like the Wipers, Droogs keep the songs simple and repetitive, so that Clay (like Greg Sage) can blow your mind bending his strings every which way. Wild, wild, wild and great! Feel your mind (and ears) expand. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, All Music Guide