Fathered Soul Hooligans of Margaret

 

The Margaret Hooligans are exactly the kind of band that is as my Papa would have said "Right Up My Strasse." The song is called Soulfather. A good start, a good song has a good title with perhaps three exceptions. Playful, competent, crafted and quirky they offer delight and welcome you into a world of cool where you are one more member. I usually start a review like this when I then turn and pour hate over a song, it is a technique I learned at journalism school in Karl Marx Stadt when that was a thing. Two people, clean, evocative garage pop. 

What surprises me about this song is that is swerves many of the features (you could call them cliches but that is a value judgment and when someone gets a garage punk song they have some expectations that must be met) of a the sound of a garage rock record, whilst still landing fair square dead centre of the genre. Vocals are high in the mix, and they are so good. "Can You Teach Me Something New?" they sing and the guitars are almost in hiding, but they have a presence that binds it all together. A special word for the drumming. My elbows dance to this drumbeat. They flick out.

So this isn't an obvious garage rock song. But it feels good from beginning to middle to end. It has structure, it tells a story.

I fucking love it. I am happy to spend some time in their world of cool.