Do you remember what you were doing in 1992? Through a haze of smoke and beer I vaguely remember going to the local record store and trading in my DANGEROUS TOYS and BULLETBOYS cds in for albums like 'Louder Than Love', 'Bleach', 'Down' by THE JESUS LIZARD and 'Trompe Le Monde' by THE PIXIES. Somehow getting stoned to LEATHERWOLF's 'Street Ready' didn't seem to make much sense at the time.

Germany's UGH! conjures up images of that great garage tradition that was the flavor of the day back in the early to mid 90s. One might immediately think of the Seattle sound, but they probably have a closer kinship to Chicago bands like TAR, THE JESUS LIZARD or North Carolina's own BRICKBAT.

A solid yet stripped down production that sounds straight out of the rehearsal space (without sounding like garbage) can best describe their third album 'Meat Fairies'. The album opener "Roach" is a straight ahead uptempo riff heavy rocker, short, sweet, and somewhat reminiscent of early JAWBREAKER. Next up, "Ostrich Skullery" starts off in a typical fuzzed-out SABBATH tradition, only to slow down into mellow psychedelia that conjures memories of choking on that last Friday night bong hit in your best friends dorm room, before spilling bong water on the carpet and drooling on yourself. "It's OK To Order Chrome" sounds seems directly culled from NIRVANA's 'Incesticide' album. My favorite track is the album closer "She" (all nine minutes and five seconds of it). A dark melodic rambling full of morose imagery both sonically and lyrically with lines like "....her black dress rustling, snakelike, sin like, skintight....". Combined with the rainfall in the background those words gave me chills. The song ends with some harmonized violins followed by about a minute and a half of nothing but rainfall and at last one final arpeggiated guitar chord. What a wonderful way to end a record!

So hail to German noise rock! You can actually hear the Fender Mustang through the beat up pawnshop amplifiers and it sounds glorious. Maybe the start of the Munich sound? We shall see.

- Peters

OFFICIAL SITE: www.ugh-music.de

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