The Urges - Psych Ward

With a debut album launch last night at The Sugar Club in Dublin, The Urges are clanking, spiraling, twanging and hollering into the spotlight from the garage drenched gutter. The sounds of 13th Floor Elevators, The Mummies, The Electric Prunes, and at times some of the psycho-mania of The Things, all moderated by echoes of The Stones in the early days, The Urges unhinge an adrenalised avalanche of psychedelic retro garage punk to be reckoned with.

One of the first bands ever featured here on Frequency-Ireland, The Urges have been around a number of years, rising through the recesses of Dublin since 2004, onto more global exposure through appearances at several major garage festivals across Europe more recently. Backed by the success of their debut single Around Again in 2005, and inclusion on a number of compilations since, Psych Ward finally pulls their sound together into a full length garage album bursting with energy which had been threatening for quite some time.

Read The Signs leads off the album with an infectious clanking rhythm and primal beats that fuse together the best of 60s garage punk with some of the psychedelic underbelly of budget rock in the 80s, though soon It Aint Right takes the noise level down a peg to sleaze out over swirling Farfisa organ. Overall the album brimming equally with menace and paranoia, though an album full of redirections and slants on the classic garage rock sound. The Urges Theme, one of their older songs appearing on the album, takes surf guitar on a journey to ride through the sonic escapade of a 60s wild west movie to gunsling out displaced psychedelic grooves. So Uptight clanks and hollers, but is offset with melodies of the paisley underground of the 80s. The penultimate track Curse It All is rampant with unrestrained propulsive adrenalin and another old favourite of the live sets, while the album closes out fittingly with where the album takes its name, Psych Ward.

Overall a must-have album for those who follow the retro-garage rock scene, and a worthy album besides for anyone who likes to indulge in the genre occasionally. The album is available in all good garages, gutters and high street stores. 8/10.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/theurges

Verfield

It had a sense of discomfort about it but Verston, not being the kind to just up and run away went on a little further. He took a step into the house and could swear he heard whispered voices coming from the room on his right. So in he went bould as brass only to see a corpse wrapped in a bin liner...


While that story can be safely left to be completed by spirited Bebo friends of Verfiled, we've conscripted the band to displace The Bonevilles for the opening set at our upcoming Halloween Charity Gig. Opening for The Things and The Fewer The Better at Baker's Underground in Limerick this Saturday Oct 27th shortly after nightfall, we expect a fun night of demonic proportions, which should ensure our Samaritans benefactors have a Happy Halloween.

A band who are getting quite busy these days, Verfield have a four track EP out this October and also involve in the running of MILF at Daffy's Basement. Tracks streamable from their myspace include Light The Torches, themed on the mindset of a haunted soul, is delivered with alt-country jilted indie rock, is perhaps their most accomplished effort to date. Also on offer online is The Final Tear which builds from sparsity with touches of blues rock into quite coarse metallic riffage veering towards My Chemical Romance that shows enough distance from the mainstream to give Verfield the flag of note as more than just another band on the scene replicating the same old ideas. Add into this a gritty delivery of Until My Ears Bleed, which shades the boundaries between rock and metal, and we have more than enough foretaste here to suggest their EP should be quite a solid work.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/verfield

http://www.bebo.com/verfield