If It's Too Loud...

Besides having my favorite band name in recent memory, Johnny Maraca & The Marockers are a kick ass band. Their latest single, "Hot Boy," perfectly captures vintage rock and roll and garage rock with a sneering punk and glam attitude. It's two minutes and ten seconds of pure rock based joy, taking cues from the vintage sounds of ? and The Mysterians and The Archies along with New York Dolls. No one would ever call "Hot Boy" a pop song, but there are pop hooks aplenty in the song. Sometimes you just need a killer rock song about dancing, and that's exactly what Johnny Maraca & The Marockers provide here. On the YouTube page for the video, Johnny Maraca says: "The world can be a cruel dark place that tries to tear us apart and pit us against eachother in the neo-capitalist hellhole that is life. In times like this we must come together and embrace eachother with the oldest human language, the language of dance baby." You can watch the video f...

If you're anything like me, you're going to gravitate to anything that K Records puts out. The label has been legendary for decades, and even if one of their releases isn't life changing, it's at the very least going to be interesting. Enter the latest single from Johnny Maraca & The Marockers. "Little Heart" might not be sonically classic K Records, but it is in spirit. The band, led by Ian McDonnell (I know, I was also shocked it's a stage name), has released one of the most charming singles of the year. This is just pure rock and roll being done for the love of rock and roll. It's a high energy burst of a song, and it's just fun. Honestly, "Little Heart" might not work for you immediately. I know when I first started listening I thought it might not be great but it's at least interesting. After two and a half minutes, I thought it might actually be kinda good, so I restarted it. Turns out, Johnny Maraca & The Marockers are ...