← Back to Genres

Garage Revival

Portland, Oregon, 1987

Dead Moon

Dead Moon formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1987, with Fred Cole on guitar, Toody Cole on bass, both of them singing, and Andrew Loomis on drums. They played stripped-down punk and country with dark, lovelorn themes. Fred engineered most of the records himself and mastered them on a mono recording lathe, and their own label, Tombstone Records, was named after the Coles' music shop. In the Graveyard came out in 1988. After signing with Music Maniac they found most of their following in Europe. Ten studio albums in, they played a last show in Groningen in November 2006, and the Coles kept going as Pierced Arrows. A reunion ran from 2014 to 2017. Loomis died in 2016 and Fred Cole in 2017, both of cancer.

Detroit, two drummers, two basses

The Dirtbombs

The Dirtbombs started in Detroit as a side project for Mick Collins, formerly of the Gories, and were recording by 1995. Their trademark was an unusual lineup, two drummers and two bass players around Collins's guitar, and plenty of Detroit musicians passed through over the years. Horndog Fest came out on In the Red in 1998. Ultraglide in Black, in 2001, was nearly all soul, R&B and Motown covers, with one original. Dangerous Magical Noise followed in 2003 and We Have You Surrounded in 2008. Party Store in 2011 redid early Detroit techno and house as rock, and in September 2013 they finally released Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-blooey!, the bubblegum record they had long promised.

Detroit, other people's songs

The Detroit Cobras

The Detroit Cobras formed in Detroit in 1994 around singer Rachel Nagy and guitarist Mary Ramirez. They made their name almost entirely on covers of obscure 1950s and 1960s soul, R&B and rock and roll, played raw and fast. Mink, Rat or Rabbit in 1998 and Life, Love and Leaving in 2001 came out on Sympathy for the Record Industry. They played early shows with the White Stripes, and a strong reaction in Britain got them a deal with Rough Trade, then Bloodshot in the US. Tied & True arrived in 2007, and Third Man reissued the first two albums in 2016. Rachel Nagy died in New Orleans in January 2022, aged 48, and the band played tribute shows for her in 2023.

The Shannon brothers, no bass

Cheater Slicks

Cheater Slicks formed in Boston in 1987 around brothers Tom and Dave Shannon on guitars and Dana Hatch on drums and vocals. They went through several bass players, Merle Allin among them, and then decided to do without one. What came out was loose, noisy, blues-soaked garage rock. They moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1996. Most of their records came out on In the Red, with others on Crypt, Estrus and Sympathy for the Record Industry, and in 1995 they toured with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. In 2025 In the Red reissued their 1995 album as a thirtieth-anniversary double LP. The band is still going.

Boston, guitar and drums

Mr. Airplane Man

Mr. Airplane Man is the duo of Margaret Garrett on vocals and guitar and Tara McManus on drums, childhood friends from the Boston area who started the band in the late 1990s with encouragement from Morphine's Mark Sandman. The Boston Phoenix voted them Best New Local Act in 1999. They took their name and their sound from Howlin' Wolf, and that raw punk blues filled three albums on Sympathy for the Record Industry: Red Lite in 2001, Moanin' in 2002 and C'mon DJ in 2004. The last two were finished in Memphis with Greg Cartwright. After a hiatus they came back to the stage in 2014, the year Dirty Water Records put out The Lost Tapes, and released Jacaranda Blue in 2018.

Portland, Oregon, 1982

The Miracle Workers

The Miracle Workers formed in Portland, Oregon, in January 1982, started by singer Gerry Mohr and bassist Joel Barnett as part of the 1980s garage revival. Dan Demiankow (guitar and organ) and Gene Trautmann (drums) joined in 1984. Their 1985 album on Voxx, a Bomp! label, was the most successful, though they also recorded for Moxie, Glitterhouse and Get Hip. In 1986 they moved to Los Angeles, Robert Butler took over bass, and the sound got harder, closer to the MC5 and the Stooges. They split around 1992, regrouped in Portland for one more album on Triple X in 1995, and have played the odd reunion show since.

Paula Pierce, Los Angeles

The Pandoras

The Pandoras formed in Los Angeles in late 1982, an all-female band led by singer and guitarist Paula Pierce, and sat at the centre of the city's 1960s-inspired garage scene. Their debut album came out on Voxx in 1984, the same year the original lineup split in two. Pierce kept the name and the others carried on as Gwynne's Pandoras. Pierce pushed the band towards a harder, louder sound, with records on Rhino and Restless and some time on MTV, though an album they recorded for Elektra never came out. In 1990 Kim Shattuck and Melanie Vammen left to start the Muffs. Pierce died in 1991, aged 31. Former members have reunited in various forms since 2013.

Tokyo, three girls, 1999

Mama Guitar

Mama Guitar are a Japanese all-female trio from Tokyo: Jun on guitar and vocals, Iris on bass and vocals, and Yoko on drums. They play garage rock and 1960s girl-group pop with a lo-fi, homemade charm. They released their first album in 1999 and In Mama Guitar Style in 2000 on Captain Trip, with Soichiro Nakamura engineering, and toured South Korea and Germany, where a 2003 festival set was later put out as a live album. Members also worked with Shintaro Sakamoto and Yura Yura Teikoku. After a quiet spell from 2006, the third album, Mamaguitar Sings Mamaguitar, appeared in 2012 with Sakamoto on bass. Pedal Records reissued their catalogue in 2021.

The Collection