Moonhearts - Moonhearts

Moonhearts
Moonhearts
(2010, Tic Tac Totally!)
RIYL = Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Woven Bones

Oh bliss! Look at my fried & scrambled brains, all hissing and popping, steaming, served up on a dirty diner's plate. Thank you Moonhearts, oh thank you thank you! I know it wasn’t much of a week or so ago when I was discussing the Moonhearts (formally Charlie and the Moonhearts) and their garage rock superiority with the 2008 tape/CD, Thunderbeast. Well, they’ve dropped Charlie, though I hope not literally. Even if they did, this self titled outing under the shinyfresh Moonhearts moniker is absolutely the bee’s friggin’ knee caps. Oh me oh my, is it delicious! Better than Thunderbeast, better than any other brick-toothed garage rock album that I can think of. Moonhearts has erased all of that; those memories. This is that type of coiled, manic, liquor-doused rock n’ roll that burns your lungs and exalts your ears. Hooks mudded and tangled in barbed wire, guitars strung out like ripped tendons, drums mashed flat like potatoes, it’s all here and noisy like Boise. Hmm hmm, I feel like I should be spiraling off into some alternate dimension of description, but I’ll leave it short and tight, just like the album.

-Thistle

Charlie & The Moonhearts - Thunderbeast

Charlie & the Moonhearts
Thunderbeast
(2008, Telephone Explosion)
RIYL = The Von Bondies, Smith Westerns, Women

Alright, this isn’t a 2009 release, but I wrote for the same reason last year and never posted it, so I thought I’d sneak it in: The band name "Moonhearts" kinda sounds like the name of a pack horses that Rainbow Bright and her cohorts would ride; however, in context of Charlie, the apparent leader of this troupe, Moonhearts are actually hardened, gritty rock purveyors of the extremely dirty variety. And heaven knows, boys like dirt, not ponies. Thunderbeast, now that is a name that more aptly conveys the mood of this album. And, literally, this album is a blissful garage rock beast. I really have no qualms with the surge of straight forward retro garage rockers that have been emerging in the latter portion of this decade. Girls, The Fresh and Onlys, The Yolks: all of them are solid and all have a good batch of hook worthy tunes. All of them are also just a little bit stale (though, in the wonderful saltine cracker kind of way that allows you to eat more and more regardless). Charlie & the Moonhearts, on the other hand, somehow avoid this stale-crackerness. The unfortunate thing about this is I can’t quite put my finger on why. I’m not sure why Charlie & the Moonhearts is striving to rank on my decade end list while the rest of these groups don’t stand an inkling of a chance. I don’t know exactly why Thunderbeast is so much more enjoyable and authentic feeling. The guitars are better, the songs more distinctive, the urgency more palatable, the tunes more groovy. I guess it just comes down to my feeling that Charlie & the Moonhearts are a better band. Better bands just make better music.

-Thistle

Charlie and the Moonhearts (now just "Moonhearts") on MySpace