Get the Newsletter

GERALDINE
Pure Bastard Rock >>> CD


Click Here to Purchase Vinyl/CD
$9 [ plus shipping & handling ]
[ We will ship the retail CD to your door ]

BIO
Bringing non-stop rocknroll to all corners of the U.S. is what Athens, Ohio's Geraldine lives for. They have been touring extensively for the last two years; playing anywhere and everywhere that real, raw rock is appreciated. Every trashy rocknroll-hell hole in the country-from dive bars to strip clubs to roadhouses of every kind- has probably played host to Geraldine at one time or another. The band also makes regular stops in Mexico proving their brand of bluesy punknroll can get a crowd moving regardless of native language.

Geraldine's recent visits to the Southwest gave them the opportunity to record with trash-rock engineer extrordinaire, Jim Waters. Waters' credits previous credits include The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Drags, Boss Hog, Bob Log III, to name a few. In short--he's the perfect match for Geraldine-as can be heard on their debut release on Orange, appropriately titled "Pure Bastard Rock."

Known for their high energy live sets, you'd be hard pressed to find any band that could match Geraldine on a good night. This four-piece really knows how to mix up the finest bits of their musical upbringings into one strong shot of thunderous rocknroll. Geraldine's sound takes early Chicago blues and combines it with the roar and fury of 70s and 80s punk rock. Add in the stomp, swagger and soul of British Invasion and 60s garage rock, and you've got it. The result of this raucous mixing of all the right elements is the real deal, folks. Geraldine plays rocknroll as it should be -- loud, honest, dirty and with SOUL!

These guys have played and toured with the likes of The New Bomb Turks, Neckbones, Bantam Rooster, Whitestripes, The Go, The Nerves, Royal Trux, Quadrajets, The Humpers, Nashville Pussy, and countless others. They were recently chosen to share the stage with The Bellrays, Ernie K. Doe, The Woggles and more at Sleazefest in Chapel Hill NC, and have been showcased at trashrock festivals around the country. They also host their own annual blowout in Ohio known as Blackoutfest. Geraldine's recorded output includes a few singles on Anyway/Revolver (who have also put out past recordings by Gaunt, New Bomb Turks, Hellicopters, and Guided By Voices), and numerous compilation appearences. Now the band has found a home on Orange, which is proud to bring "Pure Bastard Rock" to a stereo near you.


UPDATES / NEWS
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
If you dig Geraldine... You might want to check out Them Wranch or Cash Audio.
REVIEWS
CMJ New Music Report | April 30, 2001 | Issue #712

Geraldine plows through a half century of ragged sounds (from '50s Chess blues to '60s garage to '70s punk and the rougher fringe of '80s indie) like Diogenes looking for an honest man. What it finds is Pure Bastard Rock, a reasonably self-descriptive half-hour of swagger and stagger. The secret weapon is singer Matt Harvey's harmonica, which gives the distorto guitar and bass a new playmate to kick around. Listening to the disc, you could see Geraldine being feted by the downtown cognoscenti after opening for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at some painfully hip New York happening or alternately, being ignored by the old men at the end of the bar at a Rust Belt dive, building up a beer tab greater than what the gig paid - and it wouldn't matter to the band either way. This is drunkass platonic idea shit, played with some soul, and like the coelacanth, you've got to be psyched it's still alive.
- Scott Frampton: CMJ New Music Report Issue: 712 - Apr 30, 2001

Colmubis Alive | March 22, 2001 | Vol. 18 No.12
Fuzz and rumbling

Following a trio of singles on local label Anyway, Athens-based Geraldine releases its debut full-length Tuesday. Recorded in Tucson, Arizona, by Jim Waters, whose resume includes records by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Boss Hog and Bob Log III, Pure Bastard Rock (Orange) is the sound of Raw Power and Let It Bleed smoked in a fiery sauce of Chicago blues.

Pure Bastard Rock immediately waylays listeners with the raucous When the Rooster Crows and Come On Down, but is equally capable of shaking some tail feathers, as exemplified in the chicken-scratch funk of Scene for the Making. On Last Dime to the Table the band straddles the line between blues and country lament.

Through it all, Geraldine knows a good riff when it finds it, and knows that there ain't nothing wrong with dredging it in a bit of good ol' fashioned noise. The band's combo of fuzz guitar and guttural low-end rumbling packs quite the visceral wallop, while vocalist Matt Harvey pierces the grunge with wailing harp blowing. Not afraid to get their hands dirty drecking around in the muck that is rock 'n' roll Geraldine has come up with a gem of an album.