Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Fondas - Coming Now! (2003) & Runaway Bombshell (2006)

The Fondas are a good place to reorientate myself after battering my body on the water over the weekend and forget for a minute about my chronic car troubles. This band can be reduced to product of the intense attention that the Detroit garage rock scene received after the soaring popularity of the White Stripes and other Motor City acts, but that isn't hope I, nor hopefully you, should understand them. They are indeed an amalgam of artists that served in various other Detroit bands: Steve Shaw of the Detroit Cobras, Chip Sercombe of the Sillies, Mark Niemenski of the 80s band the Hysteric Narcotics, and singer Julie Benjamin of Slumber Party. The first album is a wee bit predictable, and not veyr glamorous reviews are floating around the internet, but I do like Benjamin's performance a good deal. The second release, Ranaway Bombshell, was largely written by Niemenski and showed a leap in the group's sophistication. The songs got more complex and less of a stream of undifferentiated guitar. Plus they kept at it after most of the labels and popular media moved away from Detroit, which redeems them for the idea that they formed to ride the wave. Overall, a solid example of Detroit garage rock from some really skill players.

To be had here:




Coming Now! [224 VBR kbps]











Runaway Bombshell [320 kbps]

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