Sometimes you just need to strip it all back and just enjoy something for what it is. Garage rock is one of those simple surface pleasures. Fun times and dumb times, raw music that jerks and jives, joy for the players and for the listeners.
The Pleasure Seekers were an all-girl Detroit band that started in the mid-60s. What A Way To Die name checks different beers and celebrates drinking, while rattling along with a rockabilly feel and almost punk vocals, all distortion and howling.
It's a terrific record that's highlighted in Simon Reynolds' latest book Shock & Awe. While it's about glam rock and its legacy, and The Pleasure Seekers were definitely not glam (or glitter as it was apparently referred to in the US, a sobriquet that would'nt work over here any more), the chapter on Suzi Quatro does talk of her early days - and her first band was The Pleasure Seekers.
So this is a heads up that there may be more glam rock posts in the next couple of weeks. May. I'm not a massive fan of glam but I am of Reynolds, so we'll see. Schlitz all round.
