We’re heading up to New Jersey this weekend for the very first Power Pop-A-Licious Music Festival and we’re chatting up a few of the bands whose songs’ll be stuck in our heads for the next month or so as a result.
A little later today we’ll have some tickets to give away for the festival, but for the time being, we leave you with one helluva Mess:
The Electric Mess was formed in New York City in the Spring of 2007. Initially, our main inspiration was the 60’s garage rock series “Back from the Grave” on Crypt Records, which were originally 8 records released between 1983 and 1992, and were later reissued on CD. They focus on the rawer and more aggressive side of the genre. The songs feature lots of fuzz guitars, rough vocals, and the bands were obviously influenced by groups such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, early Kinks, and The Pretty Things.
The Electric Mess | Trash Talkin Woman
Many of these bands were just teenagers across the country, playing out of their garages, probably playing their high school gymnasiums on weekends, and they usually recorded a 45 by some small obscure label in the town where they lived. The lyrics are fueled by anger and lust, matching the chaotic music. Our early set list featured songs almost exclusively from this series, and it definitely inspired certain early songs of ours like: “Trash Talkin’ Woman, “Don’t Wanna Be Your Man,” and “The Grass Ain’t Always Greener.”
Another early stylistic influence on The Electric Mess is Lenny Kaye’s “Nuggets” series, originally released as a double record set on Elektra entitled “Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era”. This compilation contains more produced, psychedelic sounds. And while there’s a fair share of obscure bands on it, you’ll find bands like The Standells (“Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White”), The Seeds (“Pushing Too Hard”), and The Castaways (“Liar Liar”) all of which we covered early on.
As we progressed in our own song-writing, we started incorporating other styles and genres that we each love and have been influenced by. Some of those include: The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield, The Yardbirds, Cream, The Byrds, a lot of R&B, various psychedelic bands, British Invasion, and surf. We released our self-titled CD in December of 2009, and since then all 13 songs from our album have been played on radio stations across the U.S. and in Europe, as well as Sirius/XM, and “Nights with Alice Cooper” (syndicated radio show). It also made a bunch of “Best of” lists for 2010, and received a 4 out of 5 star rating in All-Music Guide.
The Electric Mess | You’ve Become a Witch
Recently, Rowed Out Records out of the UK issued a 7″ of “You’ve Become a Witch” b/w “Trash Talkin’ Woman.” You can read more about us, hear our songs, watch our videos and buy our CD or 7″ on our website.
