The Grates - The Ouch. The Touch

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 13:50:05 UTC

Back when we had a Dish system, a new video music channel appeared called International Music Feed. IMF had its good points and bad points. Unfortunately, IMF had trouble rotating domestic videos. Any time you turned it on, you were pretty much guaranteed to see Gwen Stefani, Nine Inch Nails, and Audio Slave. However, IMF did have a fun habit of randomly throwing in awesome videos from around the globe that other video music channels wouldn’t touch. When I saw “Message” by the Grates, I literally wrote down the name of the band and went out to find the CD. This punk trio from was that freakin’ cool!

Much to my chagrin, the Grates were not available in the . I was even willing to have it shipped from , but that looked impossible as well as I was unable to find any Grates recordings at online Australian music sources. The good news was the Grates web site will allow you to listen to the complete 4-song EP online. The better news is the EP will be released domestically on Tuesday, 8/23/05! Sweet!

The Ouch. The Touch. begins with the song I heard on IMF, “Message.” Its 2 minutes of chaotic punk with speaker box female vocals. Kind of a mix between Picasso Trigger and Matson Jones. The video is a pure energy performance of the band in a small room. Listen and see how easy it was for me to fall in love with this band.

The Grates slow it down a bit on the second track, “Sukkafish.” A light guitar with a simple riff plays throughout accompanied by a banjo. The guitar gets a little more distorted during the chorus, but the song is somewhat slow and simple compared to the rest of the disc. It still has a very raw feel to it, which gives it a nice edge and keeps it in line with the feel for the entire EP.

The next is a song called “Wash Me” that starts out a little bouncy, and then builds up to a screaming chorus. Singer Patience has an oddly sexy yet creepy tone to her voice, which is amplified on this song.

The last song on the EP is called “Trampoline.” Again, Patience sounds kinda sexy here. There is a somewhat orgasmic crescendo just as the song is about to end.

OK, so the EP is only four songs and totals just ten minutes in length. Even though it may be a bit difficult to find, this could be the best $6.00 you spend on music this year. At least give it a listen online! Really makes me wish I could get my hands on some of their older recordings, but I guess that will require, uh, patience as well!

4.5 out of 5!

Pat Angello Fan Club Music Blog - The Grates - The Ouch. The Touch.

The Grates - The Ouch. The Touch