Texas. Famous for Stetsons, cowboys, beans, horses, rodeos, wrangling, inflated egos, romanticised all-American dreams, line dancing, rustling, oil, Dallas, and that massive space of a state that it took me four days to drive through sleeping on and in everything between wooden pallets and politician’s basements. I saw its best and saw its worst and saw its biggest. And from there it’s finest exports are these: Teenage Cavegirl, and now, The Ghost Wolves.

So to the latter of those here we come, with a new album due Halloween. The lead single is a trashbag of fuzz and punk angst with all the subtleties of a Lux Interior spooked sledgehammer. We consume, we make garbage, and know what? That makes us all pretty much garbage too. Say hello X-Ray Spex and Polly Styrine. And even though that was some decades ago (love you Polly), the message stays and the anti is higher.

But subtlety isn’t what brings us to The Ghost Wolves. Hell no. What we sign up to upon listening is a fast heady mix of 60’s garage lo-fi, B-movie connotations and test tube concoctions, sci-fi, DIY-fi, what-the-hell-is-this-fi, distortion and light horror macabre all wrapped in a distinct “I don’t Care!” These cuts lean hard on disposable thrills in a string of oil slickened two minute tantrums. Vocals pout and holler, drums pound loose and primal, theremins lurch and squeal and guitars sound like they’re about to ignite. And that’s just the main template and back bone.

Elsewhere, in the corners of ‘Wage Slave’ and ‘666 Mankind 666’, reverb ridden synth sounds and pedal work spin out in semi controlled noises. New Orleans organs fill the ears and scratch that B-movie itch in the mess that makes ‘Prey to the Mystery’; the first song that starts to play with dynamics. And that sweet organ sound, along with a broken honkytonk piano that could come straight from a post-showdown saloon gives ‘Edgar Gary’ its lilt and graveyard swagger. There’s even a hint of a vocal throwbacks to Shangri-Las and Dusty Springfield before the gutter creeps back in to ‘Who Are You? Who Am I?’. These damn wolves, they be dextrous and cunning.

Some tracks might well be held together by no more than tape and chewed gum and it’s a fine wonder they stay glued as they do. And sometimes, some tracks are just cute. I wish ‘Pee Wee RIP’ was longer, but I’m as equally glad it’s so fleeting as it runs through pure unpolished pop. There’s a whole lot to love here and a whole load of guts, that just might spill if you squeeze them too tightly.

Lead singles and samples from the album below and ‘Consumer Waste‘ is due Oct.31.24.