Walking in a Garage-Rock Wonderland: 10 Examples of 2009's Excellence in Terms of Scrappy, Catchy Song

“In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
In the garage”
-Weezer: “In the Garage”

For as long as dudes have been banging on six-strings, the garage has served as a safe haven of sorts, a place where, as Rivers Cuomo so melodically put it in the song above, said dudes could write “stupid words” and “stupid songs,” loving every one. And seemingly every few years since “garage rock” as a genre was coined way back in the middle ’60s, someone announces, breathlessly, that its raw sound “IS BACK!”

The truth is, of course, that garage rock never left, and as long as there is rock ‘n’ roll, its scrappy younger brother will always be around, noisily messing things up, often on purpose. In honor of this stubbornly awesome perserverance, below are but 10 reasons why garage rock is alive and well in 2009. Turn ’em up:

The Yolks
Album: The Yolks [Randy]
Song: “I Do What I Do”

The King Khan & BBQ Show
Album: Invisible Girl [In the Red]
Song: “Animal Party”

The Beets
Album: Spit in the Face of People Who Don’t Want to be Cool [Captured Tracks]
Song: “What Did I Do?”

Ty Segall
Album: Lemons [Goner]
Song: “Standing at the Station”

Sir Lord Von Raven
Album: Please Throw Me Back in the Ocean [Happy Parts]
Song: “I Do!”

The Strange Boys
Album: And Girls Club [In the Red]
Song: “Woe is You and Me”

Condo Fucks
Album: Fuckbook [Matador]
Song: “What’cha Gonna Do About It”

Thomas Function
Album: In the Valley of Sickness [Fat Possum]
Song: “Belly of the Beast”

Listen here on the Paste Station.

Thee Oh Sees
Album: Help [In the Red]
Song: “Meat Step Lively”

Box Elders
Album: Alice and Friends [Goner]
Song: “Stay”