All the Bands

They started as a two-song, two-chord, two-piece in 1990 - the two songs being "Love Me Lies" by The Prisoners and "Oh, Yeah" by Bo Diddley, playing to a handful of friends who couldn't understand why they couldn't play their instruments and hadn't learnt the songs. They've got a lot better in the intervening years so get down good and early for Jarvis Humby's punked up Spencer Davis Group sound.

The Sex Beatles or The Punk Commitments? A frenzy of horns and a stampede of pounding rhythm and guitar bite served up with a topping of Mark Le Gallez’s hot vocal sauce. Le Gallez leaps, swings and tears the place to shreds whilst being regimented like a General Jekyl commanding his troop via vocal howl. Chuck in Ozzy King for a tribal meltdown of tub thumping rock’n’roll moon beats. Nick zips around the bass like a speedfreak guitarist who has failed to realise they have removed two of his strings. Steve - no frills, plugs in, turns the amp to stun and lets rip a guitar attack. Subtle one minute. Floored the next. All this racket wouldn’t be fit without the lung power that helps drive this machine into dancefloor frenzy. Gaz and Big H and their forever duelling saxophones.

The Yohawks are the first real band that cult legend in exile Jeremy Gluck - co-founder of the world-famous Barracudas - has had in way too long. Jeremy started out back in 1978 with garage-surf punks The Barracudas, mixing sixties and seventies rock'n'roll, pop and punk, appearing on Top of the Pops and collecting fans, and kudos, across the world. On this foundation, he went forward in the 1980s, recording an album with members of the Swell Maps (Nikki Sudden, Epic Soundtracks), Jacobites, Birthday Party, Crime, Gun Club (Jeffrey Lee Pierce)... The result, "I Knew Buffalo Bill", is now being re-issued as a two-CD set. Jeremy's current band, the Yohawks, is a departure from the Barracudas, but they possess the same passion and intensity, combining The Velvet Underground, The Stooges and every other influence worth being influenced by into a paradoxically original sonic rendezvous. I’d like to say it’s music, but it resembles a virus. You got it: catchy.

Supercharged back-to-basics fifties rock’n’roll coming across like a collision between Little Richard and the MC5. It’s a dirty yet righteous noise that’ll get any crowd to its feet. The nearest comparison would be Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels – a pure rock’n’roll overload with a soulful vibe and a groove that just won’t quit.

Johnny Casino has the songs, the sound and the spirit of irresistible rock'n'roll bursting with soul. When Casino is firing on all six, he’s a man possessed – from the opening salvo of the cover of The Real Kids’ “Who Needs Ya” that opens his “I Am Who I Am, Not Who You Want Me to Be” album, to the bruising power chord attack of the title track, to the whisky and Chuck Berry-fuelled excitement of “Can’t Be Who You Want Me to Be” – there’s enough muscle here to lift the truck of turgid mainstream indie-rock and hurl it into distant oblivion. In Spain the fans sing football songs with Johnny Casino’s name substituted for the soccer player, in France they call him “Chuck Berry on Acid”, in Australia they say "he is like walking into the wrong room of a party at the RIGHT time"! Now is the time to roll the dice with Johnny Casino.

Formed just a few short months ago (Febuary 2008) by various lowlife has been and never weres from the Parkinsons, Shakin’ Nasties, Urban Shocks, Jackoffs and Menace, JohnnyThrottle play real rock’n’roll the way it was meant to be – snotty, moronic and straight to the point. They bang out a furious 20-minute (smoking ban-friendly) set of short and catchy Modern Lovers meet Slaughter and the Dogs meet the Electic Eels inspired mini-operas with the kind of incompetent teenage enthusiasm which only the borderline middle-aged can truly muster.

Four ladies, one banjo, one fiddle, one double bass and one guitar make up The Jolenes, a good-time hillbilly/bluegras outfit in matching frocks with a serious love of Hank Williams, The Carter Family, Tony Joe White, Charlie Feathers... indeed, for all things southern and rocking.

Jonny Chan got told off for playing his guitar at his momma's kitchen table once too often. So he ran away from home in Detroit and headed for New York City, where he joined up with local garage-punk outfit the Covingtons. But Jonny had his own songs to sing so he started the New Dynasty Six. He has since played gigs with Rocket From The Crypt, the Fleshtones (PJ saw that one, at Manitobas on Avenue B and it was CRAZY!), the Swinging Neckbreakers and many more. The one song not to miss though is Jonny's ode to narcissism, "It's All About Me". Seriously, the chicks LOVE him for it!

The Keys, under a previous name, recorded three sessions for John Peel, signed to Too Pure, were lauded by the NME for their ‘glorious jangle-pop’, counted Joe Strummer, and Damien Hirst among their biggest fans and were the “ best new band in Britain” according to Alex James. Now firmly re-established under their new name, they are set to release new album ‘Fire Inside’ on See Monkey Do Monkey Recordings. On the new album they’re still informed by their classic 1960s pop influences but now each piece is more melodic and subtle; swirled with psychedelic patterns. Informed by cult legends like 13th floor Elevators, The Velvet Underground and the Jesus and Mary Chain, whilst imbuing each homespun recording with a personal warmth and experimentalism reminiscent of modern artists like Panda Bear, Animal Collective and Jason Pearce.

Many of you will know Kid Congo Powers from when he was in Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, or the Gun Club...or, of course, The Cramps. But his latest incarnation will be talked about in the not so distant future in the same hushed yet excited tones. New album Dracula Boots is on the highly estemeed In The Red label and contains the kind of sounds we here at Dirty Water love the most. Powers goes back to the music that inspired him right in the beginning - the raw sounds of early garage-punk and East LA Chicano rock'n'roll. The original songs go from loud, fuzzy biker rock to a greasy rump shaker groove, from a scary movie soundtrack to The Meters having an acid flashback. And you get a great cover of Thee Midniters' I Found a Peanut too!

It''s 1966 all over again with an up tempo rhythm''n''blues mod stomp done with irrisistable charm and Swedish accents galore. You can''t help but crack a big smile and hit the dancefloor to these youthful organ-drenched beat party tunes.

Last time King Khan & the Shrines were at Dirty Water a review in Razorcake Magazine said afterwards: "King Khan, sporting a German army helmet and thrift store suit, a genuine jungle woman go-go dancer in tow, ascended the stage - and it was pandemonium! The Shrines broke out in a sweat of funk and groove; and King Khan had charisma oozing out of every orifice. In fact, he's so full of degenerate charm that you'd almost be okay if you heard that he fucked your sister next to the dumpster in the alley after the show. Almost. He shook, he rattled, he rolled down into the audience and rubbed his jungle staff on one of the Black Lips' genitals. ‘Do somethin' crazy you've never done before,’ he encouraged. ‘Take a shit on the floor, wipe yer ass on the wall. Let's have some fun tonight at the Dirty Water Club!’ When audience members jumped on stage they  were warned, ‘I only wanna see y'all up here if yer fuckin'!’ Band and front man ran through a series of dance moves, and during the call and response chorus of ‘Lovesick’, King Khan's ‘I'm love-sick!’ was met with the band's reply of ‘King Khan's a pussy.’ These guys are a good-time, ass-shakin' r'n'b machine. If he were old enough, I'd say King Khan was James Brown's godfather. Music fans, do yourselves a favor - sell your King Khan vinyl and buy a ticket to Europe to see him live. A great man, a great band."

The King howls like Screaming Jay Hawkins with Bo Diddley chasing his coat-tail and with Andre Williams trying to offer up some of his bacon fat. This man never stops shakin' and twistin' and groovin' while the Cumberland 3 (former members of the Ulcers, Chinese Lungs and Parkinsons) play their own branded mix of vintage rockabilly desperate rock'n'roll and a bit of soul with fire, energy, gusto and fun!

These Melbourne natives have a sound that’s a blend of garage rock’n’roll from various parts of the globe. Their debut (Australian) release, "This Is Your Lung", showers you with a wall of howling vocals, thick, mud-drenched guitars and pounding rhythms. They teeter on the brink, like the sensation you get when you almost lose control of your car, just to recover in the nick of time. Their debut album, "Primitive Tales", is out now on Dirty Water Records

One of Poland''s most popular rock'n'roll groups, with their rockabilly punk sound,coming in the top ten best songs of last year on Poland''s Radio 3.

When you get some Mexican kids who are equally enthusiastic about their home grown tradition of the Day of the Dead and the imported sounds of punk rock this is what you get!

A spiky, snotty mess of Clash/Jam noise with a pitch-perfect Strummer sneer, a ragged cut-and-shut between the garage rock ramalama of the Von Bondies and snotty curled-lip punk of early Buzzcocks.

A smokey mix of vintage blues, rockabilly, cabaret, and country, served with a side of pure Noo Yawk punk energy, this singer, pianist and songwriter performs right in your face. And on this visit to London he's bringing his entire band for a more full-on show than ever!

Thee Landells play the kind of filthily melodic, eardrum-tonguing, quasi-sexual garage-rock that stands every chance of leaving listeners post-coital. Amongst these serrated vocal attacks, bluesy drum patterns and shamanic guitar lines lurks a nicotine-stained heart of pure pop perfection.

The latest in a long line of garage bands to emerge from the banks of the River Medway in North Kent, the Len Price 3 follow in the hallowed footsteps of the Milkshakes et al and do so in fine style.