The Heebie Jeebies and the Dirt City 3 at the Golden Tiki, Saturday Jan 14, 2017

It's not often that I get out for acts that I haven't heard and don't know, but this year has been kinda quiet on the live music front for me and I needed some sonic medicine after an insane week at work. Described as two garage bands, I did a little research and heard some tuneage and dug what I discovered and made the trek across town to the Golden Tiki. The good Professor Rex Dart was spinning some quality discs, as he does numerous nights at the Tiki, and we chatted a bit between turntables before Flagstaff, Arizona's Heebie Jeebies hit the miniscule stage.

This young foursome (I'm guessing early 20's, though I'm pretty bad at guessing these days) play stripped down but loud garage punk with nicely noisey guitar and a minimalisticly rockin' rhythm section. The singer, sporting a groovy MC5 denim jacket, was highly animated, rarely standing still, lying on the floor, climbing on the drums, out in the audience and generally bouncin' around like a maniac. Their slowest song was their most anarchistic, with everyone flailing about and the drums being attacked by falling band members. There is definitely a garage element, but also a cool early punk/no wave vibe to the sound. I picked up their cassette tape - gimick-y, yes, but appropriate for their sound - and it is incredibly lo-fi to the point of sounding like it was recorded on a $12 Radio Shack portable tape player. But, they are a blast live and well worth checking out.

The debut of Vegas' Dirt City 3, led by local rocker Timothy Styles, was almost somewhat garage-influenced but much tighter, cleaner and dominated by lots of vocals harmonies. There were cool, Motown-ish grooves, heavy, sustained guitars, some punk, some glam, some psych and lots of melody! The final number meandered a bit before moving into punk territory for a big finale. Certainly another cool local band to keep an eye on!