Last week, Allston’s SBC hosted one of the most energetic, ass-shakingest garage rock shows I’ve seen in a long time. The culprit? Texas’s own Fungi Girls, the landlocked, psychedelic surf-rock upstarts who first caught most of our (or, at least, my) attention with 2011’s Some Easy Magic (Hozac). It was a blistering, no-frills surf-psych album that somehow stood out from the crowd in a time when every band was trying to make beach-inspired lo-fi.
Though they’ve seemingly kept a low profile for the past couple of years, Fungi Girls are touring extensively this summer in anticipation of a forthcoming vinyl release on Gnar Tapes. “Swim Dogs” comes via the tour-only cassette tape recently released by the band. The foundation of “Swim Dogs” is a relentlessly plodding bass line (think The Strokes’ “Juicebox”), and it’s brought to life by a whirlwind of drums, guitar, and vocals. The song is evidence that Fungi Girls are more than the sum of their parts.Sure, they’re all tight musicians (there’s no need to look further than their show at SBC last week, much of which was played at about 1.5 times the album speed), but when you put them together, they’re… unexpectedly great.