The Psyatics - Famous Monsters (Self-Released)

The Psyatics are a garage punk and noise band from what immediately appears to be the most fitting of locations, Las Vegas. Like one of their key influences, The Cramps, The Psyatics have a fondness for b-movies, universal monsters, and serial killers, as evinced by the cover art for their new full-length album, Famous Monsters. They never fully veer into the darker territory occupied by bands like Brainbombs, but instead perform with a certain punkish playfulness like The Dickies or The Misfits. With every song under three-and-a-half minutes, the album is a twisted scorcher of a roller coaster ride.

For The Psyatics, love and murder are often analogous, typified on songs like “You Killed Me First” (with lyrics such as, “Our love goes stab stab stab, and then we bleed out”) and “The Voices In My Head.” Even the brief excursions like the jazzy “The Cost of Love In Today’s Market” or the surf ballad “The Last Time I Saw Julia” have more sinister undertones. Their third and most recent album, Famous Monsters essentially follows the pattern of the previous two, but it finds a band at their peak, and if not, at least very close to it. This is a record sure to be adored by fans of kitsch, the bizarre, and the obscure.