The Scene in Los Angeles will host a rock'n'roll bender this Friday with The Stitches, Demolition Doll Rods, The Heartaches and Thee L.A. Gentlemen Callers. The Stitches have been an Orange County staple for well over a decade. Their lecherous, drug-crammed and dangerous demeanor is less an image than it is the crux of their existence. Their shows are a riotous, unpredictable barrage of lacerating guitar and perfectly unintelligible vocals. Frontman Mike Lohrman's dogged singing style cuts through the lobes like the serrated teeth of a rabid beast, and you hardly ever see him on stage without a collar. The equally long-running Doll Rods from Detroit deliver a sleaze bucket of Bo Diddley beats in a Stooges wallop of drone. Their newly christened Swami Records labelmates, The Heartaches from San Diego open show along with natives, Thee L.A. Gentlemen Callers. The Heartaches' full-length debut comes out this weekend on their own Cavepunk label (CD version soon to be available on Swami) and looks to be promising. Their classically aligned clang, fitted with chafing riffs over ornery half-sung vocals, leaves a perfect residue of epochal seventies punk. You can catch their record release party for free at The Casbah in San Diego this Sunday the 29th.
Check out this Stitches video for Automatic.
