THE OKMONIKS
Afterparty Fever!!!’
(Slovenly Records)
There are those that might feel this new album ‘After Party Fever’ from the San Francisco garage punk band Okmoniks is over a little too quickly as it is approximately 15 minutes in total. They are even producing a limited number of vinyl editions that have the same songs on both sides and the rest of the albums just have a single side. However, you have to remember one of the best punk songs from the 1970s is ‘Teenage Kicks’ by The Undertones and it is only 2.26 mins, and they were heavily influenced by the Ramones, whose songs were regularly under 2 minutes, who in turn were influenced by 60 garage punk which produced many songs of 2-2 ½ minutes in length. I think I’m so used to the 3.30 mins standard song length that I tend to forget how good melodic garage punk being machine gunned at you at such a rapid rate in wonderful tracks from this album such as ‘Next Worse Thing’, ‘He left the Party With me’ and ‘I’ll Let You In’ is.
The moment I heard this fantastic album it reminded me of the great ‘Nuggets’ series of 60s garage music and of (particular punk favourites of mine) The Revillos great 1980 album ‘Rev Up’. The Okmoniks comprise of Helene 33 on the charismatic 1960s Ace Tone Top 5 organ and vocals, Sammy on guitar, Jason on bass, and Pascual on drums. This is punk, garage and rock ‘n’ roll at its very best and I love it. You can catch them on their upcoming American tour. Can’t wait for them to play some UK dates...
Okmoniks Live 2024
09.26 Memphis, TN @ Gonerfest 21
10.04 San Diego, CA @ Tower Bar
10.05 San Pedro, CA @ The Sardine
10.06 San Francisco, CA @ Knockout
10.08 Eugene, OR @ Blairally Vintage Arcade
10.09 Portland, OR @ Turn! Turn! Turn!
10.10 Olympia, WA @ The Crypt
10.11 Seattle, WA @ Clock-Out Lounge
10.12 Yakima, WA @ Bearded Monkey
Essential Information
Main photo by Jack Matthew
Band image on this page by Grace Claiborn Barborudottir
Slovenly Records is here
