Nick Hakim – The Light
Luxas – Arbo-domo en la Nuboj (Tree-house In the Clouds)
Big Hoax – Guerrero
Fat Kneel – Hoarse Siren
Dura – Lawns
Redline Graffiti – Beauty Mark 2
The Tender Thrill – Ally
Birds and Buildings – Horse-Shaped Cloud
Elijah Jamal Balbed – Checking In
Troy and Paula Haag – Fall For You
Mark Meadows – Somethin’ Good
Bobby Thompson – Soul Love
Oooh Child Ensemble – Cerafica (Live)
Peals – Floating Leaf
Fady D – No Fret
AXB – Easy Morning
rootbug – Red Moon
Barbara Papendorp and Oren Levine – For a Tree (Arbor Day)
Elikeh – The Conversation
Near Northeast – Cenote

“It basically just means new things to worry about,” says singer and guitarist Brian Faust. “Every day you wake up and you have something that you’re kind of obsessing about, feeling bad about, ruminating on.”

The Tender Thrill seems especially fond of ruminating on loneliness. Several of its songs find the band yearning for some connection—or, at least, an alternative to prowling the Internet. Take “Katy P,” one of the tracks from the group’s 2012 debut LP.

“That song was about Katy Perry. But it was really kind of more of a masturbation song. Which is actually just a song about being lonely when you really get down to it,” Faust says. “I guess you can get to a point where you’re so lonely that all you really have is looking at pictures of other people online.”

The repetitious nature of obsession also finds its way into The Tender Thrill’s simple song structures, which borrow liberally from the blues and a few of its more recent offshoots. Faust cites Suicide, the highly repetitive protopunk band, as a primary influence.

“Basically their whole thing was consistent repetition all the time,” Faust says. “That was the basis of getting together for us.”

The Suicide influence shines through on “Serena,” one of the most immediate, quick-tempoed songs that The Tender Thrill has released so far. Like a few of the band’s tunes—“Katy P,” “Geena,” and EP cut “Ally”—it’s another one named after a woman. The emotional territory is also familiar: pining, particularly for someone to share the couch with.

“‘Serena’ is not based on a particular person,” Faust says. “It was kind of another song about being lonely and wanting someone to come over and hang out.”

The New Blues EP came out Tuesday on Bandcamp. While it’s online-only and label-free—unlike the band’s 2012 record, which had a home on local imprint Cricket Cemetery—it’s a pro studio recording, helmed by TJ Lipple at Inner Ear. That professional touch brings out some elements that sounded caked in grime on the band’s debut LP. Faust says Lipple spiffed up Jake Cregger’s drums (fine-tuned to emulate the skins on Bruce Springsteen’s The River, Faust says), as well as Faust’s vocals, which sound sharper and brighter. On “Serena,” Faust goes wild, hooting and yelping—all in the name of persuading someone to come chill at his place.

It’s hard-charging, near-primal, and The Tender Thrill’s proudest achievement yet, says the frontman. Could we expect more like this from the band? It sounds possible. “I think we’re really proud of that song,” Faust says, “and it’s a direction we like going in.”

The Tender Thrill’s New Blues EP is available on Bandcamp.

So what’s the most essential listening? I cobbled together what I consider a few of the scene’s highlights, from garage purists to unabashed punk rockers.

Mine is a very incomplete list, of course. Numerous other great bands pepper the local scene with all kinds of variations on garage-hued punk: Thee Lolitas, Foul Swoops, The Shirks, The Sniffs, Sunwolf, and surely others. Do you have a favorite local garage-ish band? Drop us a line in the comments.

Teen Liver

House-show veterans Teen Liver play a brand of rock ‘n’ roll that’s more than the sum of its parts—or maybe, more appropriately, less. The band’s cassette-only full-length plays like a surf-rock soundtrack of a CBGB-era punk documentary narrated by Lux Interior. The result is the most purebred garage punk in the city—which, like good writing, looks easier than it really is. Teen Liver plays Comet Ping Pong April 23.

Nice Breeze

Nice Breeze’s rollicking version of surf punk is so infallibly simple and lo-fi, it sounds like it could have been plucked out of a ’60s beach flick and dropped into Soundcloud. Never mind that the lyrics to “Transparency” are about pseudo science; on that track, Nice Breeze’s sound is all saltwater and sunshine. Nice Breeze plays Galaxy Hut March 30.

The Tender Thrill

If you like your garage rock pure, clean and crooning, The Tender Thrill should be in your earbuds. At times, the band can make The Standells and The Sonics sound like fist-in-the-air punks. But at its best—like on “One and Only One” from its self-titled 2012 LP—the band shows up with enough blues and barroom jangle to get the jackets off and the whiskey pouring.

Passing Phases

Without getting into the credentials of pop punk—possibly the most misapplied genre in all rock music—Passing Phases is as pop punk as the D.C. garage-revival scene gets. On its “Endless Autumn” LP, the band laces its sneering vocals and frank lyrics with pop hooks and a near-constant midtempo punk beat that pumps life through the whole record. It’s a beautiful thing. Passing Phases sounds both old and new, in better quantities and ratios than many of their garage-rock contemporaries. It may be the best the city has to offer. Passing Phases plays Comet Ping Pong April 11.

The Doozies

I don’t hear a lot of burger in The Doozies’ “cheeseburger rock,” but I do hear a lot of Bay Area: The Doozies, brothers in fuzzy garage-pop, sound like they should be jamming with The Mantles and Thee Oh Sees. On last year’s “Cooked Out,” they also dropped one of my favorite local rock songs, the hummable “A Doctor,” which you probably would need if you crushed as many cheeseburgers as these dudes probably do. (Ally Schweitzer)

Highway Cross

If there’s a Venn diagram of garage-punk, Highway Cross falls in the punk circle. But I look at D.C.’s scene as a big tent, and even Northern Virginia punk rockers are welcome. On Highway Cross’ two 7-inches, the latest released last April, their tracks walk a line between straight-up punk rock and the kind of early ’80s garage punk that opened the door to a new era of weird punk offshoots, including revivalist rockabilly. “Suspicion Police,” from 2011, is Exhibit A here—it’s a hard-charging, punk swinger with hints of of X-Ray Spex and The Buzzcocks. Highway Cross plays Smash! March 27 and Black Cat April 26.

Crumms

At some point, I’d like someone to explain to me the kinship between underground garage rock and the campy, B-horror movie aesthetic that has pervaded in punk and rockabilly for decades. Not that Crumms are an amalgam of that—the band is not schticky! I repeat, not a schtick!—but it does deliver D.C.’s most faithful take on The Fuzztones’ haunted-house surf punk. There’s also some serious darkness to Crumms’ jangle: On “Obituaries,” from the group’s February demo, the band embarks on a full minute of boogeyman guitar wails before kicking into a minute-and-a-half of speedy surf rock with distorted vocals. Crumms play Smash! March 27 and the Dougout March 29.