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GONE 192LP
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"In a just world, Song Machine, the fifth full-length album from The Exbats, which arrives via Goner Records, would become one of the most-loved and most-listened to albums of the 2020s. With the thirteen-track album, the Bisbee, Arizona-based band further their analog back-to-the-future combination of the Shangri-Las and pre-Velvet Underground doo-wop wannabe Lou Reed, churning out catchy tunes laden with buoyant choruses that rank alongside the best A-sides recorded in the shadow of the Brill Building or with the Wrecking Crew in tow. The Exbats are effortless time travelers -- this time, they've set the dial for the early 1970s, incorporating the sonic magic of The Partridge Family, Muswell Hillbillies-era Kinks, and Brian Wilson into the crux of their musical ethos, evident on tracks like the propulsive 'Riding With Paul' and 'The Happy Castaway,' which bookend the album. Inez McLain, namesake of the Monkees' wool-capped guitarist Mike Nesmith, has played drums and sung for The Exbats since she was just ten years old. Surveying the band's back catalog in relation to Song Machine, she adds, 'I always felt like our progression is similar to that of the Kinks -- starting off garage and punk and then becoming more deliberate about everything.' On this latest release, time stops altogether when Inez masterfully -- and wholly unselfconsciously -- evokes the remarkable harmonizing of Cher or Karen Carpenter at the height of their careers on two songs that unveil the raison d'être for The Exbats, and, thus, music lovers in general: 'Singalong Tonight' and 'What Can A Song Do,' which, together, anchor Song Machine while poignantly and audaciously celebrating the very act of singing itself with a sentimentality worthy of Muppets Movie-era Paul Williams. In a different world, either might inspire a viral revolution."
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LP
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GONE 173LP
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LP version. "On Now Where Were We, The Exbats hit the ground running like a dystopian garage rock version of the Shangri-Las, or like a message to the future from the pre-Velvet Underground doowop wannabe Lou Reed. The album rings bright, like a beacon in the wilderness: eminently, effortlessly catchy, and loaded with buoyant choruses that rank alongside the best chart-toppers launched by the Brill Building or Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Kenny McClain and his daughter, vocalist and drummer Inez McClain, formed the nucleus of the Exbats over a decade ago, when Inez was just 10 years old; today, Bobby Carlson rounds out the group on bass. Despite their remote location in Bisbee, Arizona, just eleven miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border, the group quickly racked up accolades citing a wealth of influences that run from cartoon quintet the Archies to punk rock originators the Avengers, and from the so-sweet-it-hurts 1910 Fruitgum Company to Los Angeles antiheroes the Weirdos. Truthfully, The Exbats embrace a wider swath of musical styles, incorporating blue-eyed soul, tongue-in-cheek country, Brit pop, psych, and R&B into their sound. The McClains describe this album as 'more ambitious' than its predecessors. They tooled ninety minutes northeast to Tucson to record, per usual, with Matt Rendon at Midtown Island Studios. Months later, the Exbats emerged with an album imbued with harmoniously cautious optimism -- the musical equivalent but psychological antithesis to the Brian Wilson-Tony Asher masterpiece 'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times'. While Wilson was looking for 'a place to fit in,' The Exbats have found sanctuary via the brilliant 'Ghost In The Record Store,' which is 'for all of us who need the joy of a little bit of plastic making lots of noise." Like the best records to croon along with, Now Where Were We is captivatingly simple, yet hardly simplistic. The Exbats are singing from their hearts -- and they aren't afraid to bare their souls."
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