THE TOMMYS
Grow Fins (Fryup Records)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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The Tommys are an Australian band making music that is sometimes instrumental surf with a garagey edge and sometimes vocal garage with a surfy edge. Sometimes there's a bit of psychobilly thrown in just to keep it hard to file at the CD store. They've been at this since 1996 and have developed a cool gloom that I find appealingly eerie. To call them tight would be a major stretch. This is one of the sloppiest bands I ever liked. The singing of bassist Jonathon "Ike" Lickliter is so lazy at times that you could say he's moaning the songs, and moaning them a little flat. Of course that fits in with the punk ethic just fine, and if you'll turn to page 317 in your musical algebra books you'll note that (surf + garage) / psychobilly = punk(x). They check their math by closing this 20 minute EP/CD with an ultra-lofi live recording of a punked out version of Johnny Cash's "Ring Of Fire." Slop all over the place, man, but twangy slop that has some attitude I hope nobody adjusts.

[Find out more about this CD at www.tothebone.com/tommys.htm.]

© 2002 - DJ Johnson