Way back in the day Garage rockers The Flaming Sideburns made records for fun and they are as hard to find as hens teeth so having them all on one neat compilation album is a no brainer and seeing as the band is on ice for the foreseeable This will do just nicely.
This carefully curated collection, put together by the band and Svart Records, features a total of 13 studio recordings from 1996–1999, three of which are previously unreleased, while the rest appeared on sold-out limited releases around the turn of the millennium.
Back in 1999 and The Flaming Sideburns went to New York for a recording session before returning to Finland. While on tour, they verbally signed a record deal with Bad Afro in Bellingham at the Garageshock festival. As a result, we had that first ‘official’ album the classic ‘It’s Time To Testify…Brothers & Sisters’ the band’s singer Eduardo Martinez, points out that this release is something of a watershed moment for the band which is why it’s finally getting a release in January 2025.
There’s such a cool live vibe on the opening four tracks that were recorded in sessions back in NYC they absolutely nailed the reckless abandonment and garage rock sound perfectly hitting the familiar groove that sounds so cool and fresh even to this day all these years later. ‘Spanish Blood’ hit the ground running with a loose feel but those guitars hit the spot. There might be every garage MC5 cliche known to man happening here along with some (Flamin) Groovie licks and melodies ‘Do The Bama Lama’ is a band having fun.
By the time the band headed back to Helsinki and recorded a magnificent version of ‘Lucille’ they were getting the groove on and the saxophone on this one is super sleazy to accompany Martinez’ awesome screams. The first three songs on side two are previously unreleased with ‘Walking Dynamite’ giving early Hives a real run for their money. To be fair when they covered ‘Suzie Q’ it’s a feedback howling jam of the highest order from Martinez Iggy drawl to the guitars trading licks n fills its a banger as the kids would say.
It’s a no-brainer for Garage Rock fans or Flaming Sideburns fans, sure its not polished and very much Lo-Fi stuff but a fascinating and exciting collection for sure with the band nailing their covers to the mast and showing what’s inside their soul to great effect. I hope the band are chilling whilst being put on ice but don’t leave it too long before they reconvein and kick out the jams once more. I love some Flamin’ Sideburns. Buy It!
Author: Dom Daley
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