Teenagers-Demo II (2013)

Teenagers wowed me pretty hard with their first demo, back in 2012. I still stand my by original, drunken assertion that it was one of the best albums of its kind last year. Crisp, clean, hyper-melodic garage about love, love and...love. I had them pegged as falling somewhere on the Beach Boys side of the Beach Boys/Troggs split as far as neo-60s pop goes. You know the difference: music you can play in the car with your parents when you're home for the holidays, vs. ugly, nasty, lewd tunes about premature ejaculation.

Well, on their second demo, Teenagers seem to be hopping the fence and sliding into the slime of the Troggs' turf. The basic sound is still the same: dirt-simple guitar lines, stutter-putter bum drums, a singer who's perfected the art of the "I'm so elegantly wasted I just don't give a damn" voice. But the band has popped a few pills, maybe had a few bad one night stands, and gotten dirtier, muddier. The guitar is fuzzier, and the mix overall got dragged through a few backalleys and dive bars before winding up on bandcamp. "Sick and Tired," the demo's closer, is their best tune yet: a riff nasty and heavy enough that they mighta stolen from The Gits.

Hopefully Teenagers will record a proper EP or LP soon and the great mystery of whether they're Troggs fans or Beach Boys fans will be clarified. In the meantime, check out this demo.