A few years ago, when rock music was wallowing in the doldrums of poor writing and lazy musicianship, a new “genre” emerged led by bands such as The Strokes and The Hives, who were lauded for bringing rock back to its everyman roots with simple guitar riffs and aggressive, face-pounding lyrics. The garage rock resurgence was minimalist but embarrassingly impure, as bands played fast and hard only to keep the attention of the MTV generation.
Let me be brutally honest. None of these bands were any good! Sure, they could party with the most raucous of Hollywood hotshots, but when they woke up in the morning, they were still just ugly Buddy Holly/Sid Vicious wannabes. The Hives somehow made it big despite recruiting Ron Jeremy to play bass and all dressing like the ma