The Silverteens, both together and as individual players, have been found at the beating heart of the Minneapolis music scene for decades, via iconic bands such as Nip and Tuck, Laughing Stock, Hot Pastrami!, and Mezzo Fist, to name but a few. Back together for their first release in several years, TV On Fire is a five-track EP, a short, sharp and shockingly effective slice of New-Wave-infused, power-pop for the modern age. And it is where the accessibility of their pop-awareness meets the raw grind and groove of garage rock that they find their great sound.
“Don’t Burn Your Bridges” kicks things off perfectly, raw, jangling guitars and driving bass melodics, staccato beats and sing-along, fist in the air vocals and not a million miles away from a more rock and roll take on the quality quirk of Wall of Voodoo, and that’s never a bad reference point to throw around.
“Brought You Down” is all chuggy rhythms and brooding blasts, foot on the monitor anthemics and dancefloor filling boogie-ness, the title track is seering and sensational and “Cupidation” reminds us that The Silverteens were always great at picking the best songs to cover – this time an obscure garage rock classic originally performed by Italy’s finest garage rockers, The Bumpers, for a 1966 Stewart Granger movie, made over and muscled up.
“Chant Along W/The Silverteens” serves as a coda to the previous song, a Gregorian-chant callback to the fact that The Bumpers were excommunicated by the Catholic Church for their infamous 1966 “Beat Mass.” Hopefully we live in more enlightened times…Chants would be a fine thing! That’s how you pick your covers.
What a great set of songs, familiar enough to have all the old garage rock aficionados and power-pop posse paying attention but fresh enough that a whole new set of pop-pickers and rock stalwarts will also be on board.
Fantastic.
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