The Darts (US)
I Like You But Not Like That

And to the cry of "The garage is mine, and I manage it my way," second and final part, here are the Darts – open parenthesis US close parenthesis, just to distinguish themselves from the dozen or so namesakes more or less active on the scene.

If the Rosalyns have released the most carefree garage album of recent years, the Darts have instead created the practically perfect garage album, this "I Like You But Not Like That."

In this case as well, an all-female band based between Phoenix and Los Angeles, four charismatic and good-looking girls – Meliza, Nicole, Christina, and Rikky – which doesn't hurt (ask the fans crowded under the stage at the last beat festival in Salsomaggiore Terme) with an obsession for the sound and imagery propelled by the Fuzztones in the "Lysergic Emanations" era or thereabouts. The video for "My Heart Is a Graveyard" already says it all, my heart is a graveyard, soundtrack like a script from any old B-horror movie in strict black and white, accompanying their evolutions through remote cemeteries and black magic sessions. As in "Little Deb O'Nair" grow up series.

That track, which revealed them to myself and some other devotees of the cult, is part of the second EP, released in the summer of 2017: the first and second EP, then combined in "The Darts" of 2018, indicate that in the garage the germs are still very much alive and ready to spark a new epidemic.

A few days after "My Heart Is A Graveyard," comes "Me.Ow," the debut album, which maintains its grip and asserts the passion of the four in capital letters: it’s nothing new, but there should be more bands and records that still sound like this, 50 years after the Sonics' debut or 30 after the Fuzztones.

The Darts don't leave and are ready to double down.

In January 2019, it was time for the single "Subsonic Dream b/w Bullet": the girls take the gas can from the corner and pour it on the floor, good to the last drop. And they prove they have courage to spare: they could have survived on the backs of us fanatics, continuing to sell us the daily dose of Farfisa and fuzz, they’re quite skilled at it. And instead, they strike the match and set it on fire: goodbye garage, the attitude remains solid, but those two tracks tell a completely different story, the sound thickens, the furious guitar riffs of the newcomer Meliza – so talented, one to watch – take precedence over the Farfisa and, with "Subsonic Dream" especially, it feels like being plunged back into the whirlpool of the heaviest L7.

The fanatics with earmuffs lined with whatever you like don't take it well; the enlightened ones start to tremble, knowing there will soon be joy. Jello Biafra isn't a garage fanatic but being one of the enlightened – for some, the enlightened, the supreme light, for the past 40 years – he is struck by them, wants them close, on concert tours and at Alternative Tentacles home.

So far, in a few words, who the Darts are and what they’ve done so far.

To finish, in May "I Like You But Not Like That" arrived, which in a few words, is a half masterpiece, with some uncertainties here and there, but those very uncertainties highlight how skilled these four girls are.

And after Fuzztones and L7, just to give some references to take with a grain of salt, inside I hear something of Dick Dale, something of the Doors, and something of the Cramps, but most of all, a lot of the Darts.

Capable of updating the tradition, perhaps even to the point of inaugurating a desirable neo-neo-garage revival of the new century, thanks to tracks like "Breakup Makeup", "My Way", the extraordinary "Break Your Mind" and "New Boy."

But also capable of betraying the canons, leaping over fences and playing some of the best stuff of these times, regardless of the genre, especially "Don’t Hold My Hand" and the title track, as dark as the bat costume flaunted by the four and the Nosferatu who peeks out in the video of the beautiful "Love U 2 Death", as vibrant as the deep red dominating the cover.

For what little I know about the music circulating now, this is the most beautiful all-around, by far indeed.

Bravo Darts.

The guys should learn how it’s done.