The lo-fi garage movement that began a handful of years ago has started to create its own second generation. Bos Angeles was born of Richard Board and Ben Ferry’s shared love of ‘first wave’ (relatively speaking) garage acts like Beach Fossils (QRO photos), Harlem (QRO album review), and Male Bonding (QRO album review). Taking Out the Trash is a compilation of EPs and a would-have-been LP for twenty-one lo-fi tracks.
At twenty-one tracks, there’s more lo-fi than you need on Trash, and the fuzzy nature of the sound only further makes songs bleed into one another. However, twenty-one tracks also guarantees some stand-outs, maybe nowhere more so than in the opener, “Beach Slalom”, which has some of the eighties-esque lo-fi love found in The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (QRO live review). As the material is arranged chronologically, that starting highpoint could indicate that the band peaked early. It is the case that many acts start with a great single, but there are many other songs which recommend Trash, such as fifties-style “It Felt Like a Kiss”, rhythm & echo “Wild Things I Did Before”, catchy “Shivers”, relaxed “Bare Bones”, cheery “Made About the Girl”, and more.
Bos Angeles doesn’t break from the pack on Taking Out the Trash, but nicely keeps the garage lo-fi thing going for another generation.
Bos Angeles – Beach Slalom
