Forty Fives

Get It Together

BY Patrick LejtenyiPublished Sep 1, 2000

The mind-searing, ear-popping, hip-cracking, spine-melting fury of Atlanta's the Forty Fives is far and away one of the most dynamic celebrations of freak-beat Americana in recent memory. Picking up where the Fuzztones left off, the quartet's debut release is bare bones, essential teen madness at its rawest, with a churning Hammond B-3 to take the listener deep into psychedelic outer space. Snarling riffs, throbbing bass lines and primordial, sweat-laced vocals are pop twisted and ripped apart. The Forty Fives fit on the same bill as Link Wray, Davie Allan and the Arrows, the Sonics, the Chesterfield Kings, the Vipers with a nod to the MC5 - mean blues-shaped rock from the garage. This music's trashy, horny and aggressively adolescent. Anyone who has ever listened to the Wild Knights' "Beaver Patrol" knows where they're coming from. This is the original "kick mom 'n' dad out and crank it way up" music.
(Ng Records)

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