I first mentioned Thee Ludds a while back when I found their split 12″ on Palmist Records.  That was the first I had heard of the Leicester band, but it appears they have a couple of releases knocking around, including a cassette release on Sheffield-based Tye Die Tapes.  I am really starting to feel a bit dadrockish with my CDs at the moment!

Incidentally, anyone else finding the fashionable return of Sweater Shop-style nineties knitwear a bit unsettling?

Anyhow, this lot make garage rock/punk/pop/whatever/youknowtheusual, which is given something of a psychedelic flavour by the organ sound.  It’s somewhat reminiscent of Lil Daggers on our own label, actually, albeit with slight inflections of ska and mod which make it seem just that little bit more English.  More punky than swampy, I suppose you could say.

In any case, from the admittedly fairly scant evidence thus far (try their SoundCloud page to make your own mind up), these guys seem to have a really strong grasp of the basic ingredients of successful garage rock: keep it short, punchy and catchy.

I am starting to see a lot of these garage bands gravitating towards labels who do a lot of tape releases, split releases, and stuff like that.  It’s usually small scale and DIY, and quite a few rack up a fair few releases in this manner before going anywhere near an album.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I am not entirely certain where albums even fit in this aesthetic, actually.

Thee Ludds – Astral Plane

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Thee Ludds – Where to Begin

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