Marty Kings – XVII (Macchio Records)

I don’t think this band has ever played a show. You know THE MONSIEURS (see HERE)? This is them with Jonathan on drums instead of Erin. Andy Macbain is credited with writing all these songs (as he is with THE MONSIEURS stuff), but here he is also given credit for playing a bunch of instruments as well. And as much as I love the ROCK THE NIGHT record by Macbain’s other band, this record by MARTY KINGS is, dare I say, even better. Grimier, scuzzier, and in the end. in possession of just a slightly bigger pile of songs that I LOVE. “Talk This Way” has the man sounding like somebody who never, I mean never (I mean he sleeps in it) takes off his leather jacket. “Bom Bom Bom” has Hilken taking lead vocals for the nastiest bastard country fried Ramones-thing you ever heard in your life. He’s Macbain people. He is in the mix everybody. Somebody grab the man his throne and crown and give him some money quick. Who does garage rock and pop better in the northeast?? I mean really!?! From JP/ Brookline.

This write up originally appeared on MY FAVORITE BOSTON & NEW ENGLAND RECORDS of 2013 list. Some of the records on my list never got written up on the Hassle site otherwise. So in the cases where write-ups from the list will also work as stand alone posts I’m re-posting them, to shine a little bit more light on what I believe to be their awesomeness.