OUTDOORSMEN
"You're a Tattletale, Baby"/"Hey, Jessica"
Terminal Boredom • Record Reviews Spring 2009
The fucking Outdoorsmen are back with another fucking single and I couldn't be fucking happier you fuckers. No one else probably cares, but don't say I didn't warn you. Their first seven-inch was absolutley overflowing with potential (and "You Aint Got No Chains" still makes it on mix tapes almost a year later), and they absolutely fucking deliver on this sophomore effort. Title cut/A-Side is badass and all, but I think they really take steps towards claiming the garage-punk Intercontinental title belt with "Hey, Jessica", a totally catchy ballbuster dripping with snot and dirt. No fancy shit, just piss-on-yer-leg lean-n-mean garage goods. You want me to name names? Ok, it's like the Brides or Captain 9's reinvented for a new age. Put that in your fucking pipe. These three kids are from the Bay Area, and I NEVER hear anyone mention them. They don't dress up like Seventies dirtbags? They don't wear Beatleboots or have pageboy haircuts? They don't sing enough tunes about pizza or kissin' dudes? Nobunny doesn't write their songs? What gives? Scum stats: not enough copies, with a continuation of the fantastic art that graced their last single. A+. "Get on it you boners."(RK)
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL 314 July 2009
No-frills garage punk, beauty in simplicity. No crazy, angsty vocals, no weedling guitars, and no goddamn hipster pop-rock bullshit. The songs clock in right around two minutes and the drums, guitar, bass, and vocals all kind of do the same thing at the same time. In a certain great way, the Outdoorsmen nail the mid-'90s garage sound without coming off like some craphole revival act trying to walk in some other band's footsteps. It took a couple of spins, but the two quick takes here really grew on me. (IS)
OUTDOORSMEN
"Ain't Got No Chains"/"When They Bury You Down"
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL • 305, OCTOBER 2008
Garage punk with a good dose of the necessary-for-success Ingredient X that too many bands lack. Added plusses: the production sounds suitably cheap but not too skuzzy, and the songs have a quasi-Back From The Grave feel without coming off as slavish imitations. Another misleading cover, though the seventh-grader's drawing of Iron Johns (one usuing a punker's torn off arm to smoke a spliff, another angrily pissing into an apparently delighted debutante's mouth) does have a certain "What the fuck?" value. (DD)
Terminal Boredom • Record Reviews Fall 2008
Really surprised by this one. Cover art is ridiculously great cartooning that has you thinking this is gonna be some scum-punk shenanigans. Yet, it's actually a couple tunes worth of lo-fi garage rock, pretty traditional at first glance, they recycle some riffs you've heard a zillion times but invest them with some real charm and tough strut. "You Ain't Got No Chains" is about getting done wrong by some broad and really sneaks up on you in the catchiness dept. Great chorus, great semi-inept take on Sixties-ish garage jangle, singer works it out real good...not super wild, but just crazed enough. Flipside "When They Bury You Down" is a dark brooder, nailing the hook again, nice howling AND harmony parts. Quite pleased with this one, total BFTG/Teenage Shutdown vibes, but skipping any Nineties revival cliches. They're from SF, and of the million bands I've heard people pimping from the Bay Area, I've never heard anyone mention these guys or their record. I guess you gotta get Darrin Rafflehead or one of The Cuts in your band to get any play out there...There's no reason garage turkeys everywhere shouldn't be all up on this. (RK)
Razorcake
This isn’t garage rock. This is a chunk of really cheap steak stuck onto a tree branch and left to rot in the woods. Unless you’ve been lost out there for a while and the sun has really baked your brains, you’re probably not going to enjoy it. –MP Johnson
