Bad Sports “Kings of the Weekend” 2011. Dirtnap Records. Austin, TX-based garage punk. Band members Daniel Fried (aka TV’s Daniel, on bass and vocals) and Gregory Rutherford (drums) are/were both in other Dirtnap label bands: Mind Spiders, High Tension Wires and Radioactivity; Orville Neeley (guitar) has worked with about a zillion other bands, either performing or producing (he has 112 listings on Discogs). I’ve been slowly slogging my way through the stack of records I bought after Dirtnap Fest this past June: I procured at least one record from every band who performed (if available).

Kings of the Weekend is Bad Sports’ third LP. It’s fun and fast garage punk, with more than a few nods to the 60’s-pop punk sound of the Ramones (like the tracks “Teenage Girls” and “Can’t Stay” – both could have totally been on Ramones or Leave Home). My favorite tracks are the album opener “Off Switch” which is super-fast punk, and the chugging, ass-shaking garage rockers “I’m in Love (With Myself)” and “Get Your Head” which call to mind some of my favorite 90’s garage punks like the Dirtbombs and the Hellacopters. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like anyone (including me) captured their performance at Dirtnap Fest…or at least didn’t put anything up online so here’s a performance from about 10 years ago: