From Long Beach, California, the Tijuana Panthers are a garage band with a difference. On Semi-Sweet, they inject high-octane rock ‘n’ roll sounds with the sun and surf vibes of their hometown.
Semi-Sweet is a colourful journey through at least four decades of offbeat music that’s straight from the heart. The beach-punk harmonies of “Tony’s Song” recall the relentless energy of The Wipers, while “Father Figure” left-turns toward the kind of complicated jangle-pop of New Zealand’s Verlaines. “Push Over” is like some kind of Howard DeVoto demo that suddenly splits into a Mickey Baker guitar line, and “Juvy Jeans” is pure my-daddy-was-a-New-York-Doll teen-punk thrill. Of course, the surf guitar they built their band on is still surging along, and it’s on moodier tracks like “Baby On Board” and “Forbidden Fruit” that we get an idea of their development, while their reverent cover of Nerves’ “One Way Ticket” joins the dots between the power pop band and their descendants.
With Semi-Sweet, Tijuana Panthers join Innovative Leisure’s eclectic roster, which includes psychedelic garage band The Allah-Las, instrumental hip-hop artist Nosaj Thing, punk outlaw Hanni El-Khatib, and dance-pop sensations Classixx.
