BLAHA “Fresh Horse” 2017. 3-song 7″ on Slovenly Recordings. BLAHA is The Blind Shake’s Mike Blaha’s solo project (the other Blaha brother in The Blind Shake, Jim, has his own side-project, Jim and the French Vanilla; they also have a joint project, Shadow in the Cracks). (The Blaha’s are as prolific as some of their stated influences – Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees – releasing new music every few months or so.) We saw BLAHA perform this past Friday night at Acme Records in Milwaukee and as expected, Mike and his band saturated the store with their raw fuzzed-out garage rock. Intensity permeates every aspect of BLAHA (I chatted with Mike for a few minutes after the show, discussing The Blind Shake documentary from a few years ago; he said that the interviewers would ask a question, he would answer and they wouldn’t say anything so he’d answer it again and then yet again more emphatically until they’d say “OK, got it.” Mike: “It made me seem really intense.” I laughed. It’s funny because it’s true! It’s difficult to get a good performance photo at Acme but here is a picture from the show, the caption “intense”).

“Fresh Horse” and “All My Cells” on the A-side of the 7″ are, of course, also intense. Stomping beats, distorted and fuzzed guitars, noise rock yet with enough catchy melody to take the edge off the sinister vibe the songs convey. The B-side “The Day We Were Born” is, when compared to the flipside, practically straight-up pop, reminding me of the late 80′s/early 90′s Brit-pop scene, bright flower power garage rock sprinkled with a bit of 21st century grit.