Blood Buddies

Blood Buddies [7-inch] (2012)

Rich Cocksedge

Although undoubtedly limited by the lack of numbers in a musical duo, it is by no means something to hold back a suitable pairing as they attempt to create something listenable within a narrower confine than even a three piece might manage. One only has to look at duos like the Evens, Japandroids, Evil Beaver and yes, the obvious inclusion, the White Stripes to see that success, however that manifests itself, is not limited to groups consisting of more than two musicians and that somehow duos more often than not achieve a greater degree of musical synergy than larger beat combos do.

Blood Buddies are no exception here and the band have certainly managed to produce something eminently listenable and appealing with the limited musical resources to hand. The three tracks featured on this self-titled release via one of the best fanzines around are primitive-sounding, relatively basic in song structure and at times come across as if they've been recorded at a distance rather than having the instruments being mic-ed up at close quarters. All of which go to create a great single with bags of oomph and the constant flipping of vinyl to keep repeating the songs over and over.

Blood Buddies are one half of the band Mountain of Teeth; the buddies being Rachel Lynch (guitar and vocals) and Susan Raygoza (drums). I wouldn't lay claim to knowing anything about Mountain of Teeth but having listened to a couple of tracks on Bandcamp, it's certainly a different kind of band to what Lynch and Raygoza are doing with Blood Buddies, with the focus of the quartet being more on a brooding, punk-metal-grunge sound as opposed to the primitive garage rock of the duo. The one similarity is how the vocals of both bands vary from being more subdued and then suddenly moving to a more primal scream/shriek.

The three tracks featured, "Midas Medical Group," "Birth Control" and "Pageant Perfect" all have their own quirks but the end result is that this single is a bite size dose of garage punk rock 'n' roll that hits all the right notes, lacking any hint of any overt studio wizardry in creating the sound.

All in all, a mighty fine release and I'm now on tenterhooks waiting for a Blood Buddies album to add to this single.