Easy Action/Reigning Sound

Yes, Easy Action is yet another raw rock band from Detroit. But the only "garage" singer John Brannon's voice ever parked in was some junk-parts pit stop off the banks of the River Styx. After fronting the monster-shock blues of the Laughing Hyenas through the early '90s, Brannon resurfaced with Easy Action a few years ago, nightmarish scream intact; after all these years, he still bellows with hurricane wind and pitchfork-up-rectum horror. Separate him from this equation, though, and Easy Action is pretty much your standard Tigertown riff-rock machine.

Despite oodles of indie cred and a lunar-level Brit-press cool quotient, the Reigning Sound is a fairly standard setup too. Classic Beatles and Beach Boys hooks, doo-wop melodies, and Stonesy raggamuffing are the well-worn touchstones here. But singer Greg Cartwright's songwriting is so strong, his choice of covers so cunning, and his cracking pipes so emotionally affecting that the band's records play as a true spit-shine for older fans, an eye-opener for green hipsters who never heard it this good. And if it all still comes off a little bar-bandish live, go easy on Cartwright; he may still be recovering from the torrid blues-punk twister of the Oblivians, his previous band, which pretty much kick-started this whole neo-garage trend back in the mid-'90s.