REVIEW: BORN LIARS - GO BACK ONE DAY 7"

OH MAN! It's the week of June 8-14th, and you know what that means... GARAGE WEEK OF REVIEWS OF ROCK! Yep! Wanna know why this week? Numerology. Figure it out. Today and all week long we'll be doing our best to catch you up on some of H-Towns most shade-tree recordings from bands that are most likely in the collective mental salad spinner we call 'garage rock.' Now, if you have been a consistent reader of the Houstoned Rocks posts tagged Reverberations, then you're probably already more caught up on the local garage scene than we could possibly ever be, but, just because, we thought we'd throw our tomatoes in the colander too. No, praise the maker, we won't be making salad similes all week.

From the outset, it's fair to share that our favorite garage rock record is Joan Jett's Bad Reputation. Ok, not really. But dangit, doesn't it have the potential to be?! We mean, if the whole thing flew along like the title track does, all ripping power chords and floor toms and big first pumping choruses, they pretty much could have boarded up the music industry right then and there. Quitting time folks, and sorry about that Tu-Pac and Biggie, you're going to have to find another way to sell T-Shirts. REAL TALK: "Bad Reputation" has one of the best guitar solos in the history of single-coil pickups and it's ONE FREAKING NOTE. But sadly, though it's a solid as Lita Ford, this record never again sounds so much like the elemental authenticity of four people rocking out as fast as they can in the place where the family station wagon usually sits. Could there be a more disappointing cover of Wooly Bully?

Hello. Welcome to Offtopicistan. Your original destination, a review of the Born Liars 7", is right through these doors in the next paragraph. We hope you enjoyed your stay.

Like "Bad Reputation" (the song), Go Back One Day fires out the gates with a velocity approaching the physiological limits of a race-horse, and with as little regard that they might snap guitar strings or tibias. The 7" flies along so fast that we find ourselves rushing over to the turntable to flip the record over to the b-side, afraid they'll keep playing without us once the first two tracks are over. "Go Back One Day" sets that pace, and the template for the record. Fast, fun songs, spatially oriented (going back, meeting downstairs, being where one belongs), and most assuredly not ever crossing the three minute mark. The instrumentation is straight out of the race-program - but in a good way. Overdriven guitars, ragged riffs, lock-step bass and plenty of crash cymbal over vocals heavy on the 'hey', 'baby' and 'yeaaahs'. It's a glorious rush, and a damn fine translation of the Born Liars swaggery live show onto wax. When the three songs are over, it's like the party has suddenly been sucked right out of the room. Lame. Go turn it over and listen to it again. Yuss, party gold.

Born Liars have really kicked up the dust since their 2006 debut Exit Smiling. Go Back One Day's songs have a greater immediacy - they get to where they need to be sooner, are tighter and sound like a band who's kept a promise to itself to kick the jams out that much harder the next time around. Recommended.

Stream: Born Liars - Various Tracks