The Pile: Reigning Sound, 'Love and Curses'

Is that handpainted?

Is that handpainted?


Artist: Reigning Sound
Album: Love and Curses
Label: In The Red
Year: 2009
The great thing about modern garage bands is that they have decades of music that early garage inspired to pull from as well. It’s hard to imagine Reigning Sound without Bruce Springsteen’s back catalog or The Dead Boys to look back on, but at the same time, their simple approach revitalizes the best moments of Nuggets and Pebbles.
There’s a lot of passion (and Hammond organ) to these songs, and very few chords. That’s the way it should be. Reigning Sound takes the best from classic chord progressions, and modernizes them just enough with straightforward lyrics about love and loss to give the listener a toe-tapping pop album that stretches past most pre-conceived notions.
Most reviewers know that there are more albums available to review then there is time to review them, hence: The Pile. This column is designed to put a spotlight on some of those albums before they slip through the cracks.