When I Left

Jesus Christ! The Stools! This is the kind of mangled barking terrifyingly manic garage that the Midwest pumps out better and more consistently than anybody and the Stools seem to be challenging every one of us to a frenetic fistfight for top spot. With 4 songs averaging 2 minutes, the When I Left EP feels like a whirlwind experience from its opening distortion to final feedback. The title track When I Left is a garage punk banger a la Gun Club meets the Oblivians that tremors and nearly buckles under its own weight before it ends. American Convertible Stools chugs almost entirely on the same infectious blues riff, which could be repetitive with another group at the helm, but here is just incredibly fun and vital. The B-side? You've got the desperate and evil blown-out blues of Black Fly Stew butted up with the gone-before-it-was-here urgency wrapped up in a Bo Shitley beat of Don't Need Nothing. Give this a spin and you won't need to care about what anyone has to say about anything anymore.