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The Strange Boys and Girls Club

(In the Red; US: 3 Mar 2009; UK: 2 Mar 2009)

Hailing from Austin, Texas, the Strange Boys toss its hat in the new school of garage rock ring and gives the likes of Black Lips and King Khan and the Shrines a serious run for its money on its impressive debut on—what else but America’s own intrepid new school Nuggets miner—In The Red Records. Though the band might look like it stepped out of a Vice Magazine fashion shoot, these young scrappers sound as though it stepped right out of the 1967 underground, washing the English charm of Face to Face-era Kinks in an acid bath of 13th Floor Elevators proto-boogie to create something more genuine than most of the groups out there currently being touted as garage rock. The political paranoia of songs like the folky “Then” and “They’re Building the Death Camps” suggest perhaps a little too much time spent listening to fellow Texan and radio host Alex Jones, but there’s a reason why the likes of Roky Erickson and the Mighty Hannibal have asked the Strange Boys to back them up. It’s because the quartet is the real thing, y’all.

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Ron Hart is currently enjoying his 11th year as a professional music journalist. In addition to PopMatters, he has also written for such publications as CMJ, Billboard.com, SPIN.com, The Village Voice, Gear, Paper, SHOUT NY, Paperthinwalls.com, Blender, Yellow Rat Bastard, Good Times, Paste, and Barnesandnoble.com among others. He is also the editor and publisher of the Interboro Rock Tribune, a free NYC music zine now in its 6th year in print. Please give us traffic on our website at http://www.irtmag.com.


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16 Nov 2011
Scuffed folk and dusty blues define the young Austin, Texas band's third long player -- and it's their best yet.
24 Mar 2010
How do you improve on perfection? In the case of Spoon, you pair one of indie rock's most reliable live acts with two up-and-coming bands that can more than hold their own.
23 Mar 2010
Here the Strange Boys sound less like the kids blowing the fuses at their parents' houses, and more like a band that might get berated by folkies at Newport.
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