Milky Ways

Featuring former members of Spaceshits and Les Sexareenos, this energetic garage rock pulls from pre-fame Hives as much as it does anything you’d find on a ’50s/’60s Blast From The Past compilation. Montreal’s Milky Ways are the stuff of a psychedelic/surf legend. Featuring a male/female split vocal that shakily harmonises over the indispensable Big Muff fuzzy guitar, minimalist, tinny drum kit and electric piano, the album is impressive. Not for its die-hard clinging to a long-dead musical past, mind you, but for how it makes us think we’re missing something for not still sporting shag haircuts, striped denim and heel boots. Fun and hip-shaking in its kitschy swagger, this feels more bona fide than the scenester versions that have been swarming like vultures over the past few years. Probably more so because of the lacklustre recording quality that adds some element of perceived nostalgia. How so? Well, thanks to the aforementioned lo-fi production and live-to-tape documentation, it’s almost timeless; as at home on ’60s soul rock radio as it would on your obligatory modern rock station today.