REVIEW: Strange Hands - Dead Flowers

Strange Hands is a garage rock band from Bordeaux, France, playing an engaging brand of lo-fi noise pop.  Struggling to come up with something to compare it to (my musical vocabulary being somewhat limited), I summoned "The Ramones and R.E.M. meet ? and the Mysterians at Roky Erikson's place". It is the most ridiculously catchy, dirty, snotty bit of psychedelic garage rock I've heard in years. It might end up being my favorite album of 2012.

So, are you intrigued? Here's a video for "Love Illusion":



All right, did you see that? Do you seriously need to read any more from me? Just go buy it. It'll be available next week at the website of their label, the charmingly-named Shit Music For Shit People (SMFSP for short -based in Italy and Portugal). It is a joint release with SMFSP and French label Azbin Records. You can listen to a few of the songs, and even download "Love Illusion", at their Bandcamp:

Seriously, I could go on about Ramones comparisons, Seeds influences, hazy "Nuggets" memories, early Elvis Costello (though their sound more resembles the punk of "Mystery Dance" it occurs to me that the band name could have come from a phrase in "Every Day I Write The Book"), but I'd rather just listen to some more Strange Hands.

Here's "Revenge of the Beggars" from their 2010 EP Dead Frozen Deer:

Here's a bonus: if you are into psychedelic art, Lucas Donaud, who is in Strange Hands and designed the album covers, has a website.