The Courettes – Here We Are The Courettes

If you know little or nothing about The Courettes then here’s your chance to catch up quickly. Briefly The Courettes are Danish/Brazilian husband/wife duo Martin Couri (drums) and Flavia Couri (vocals, guitar) who knock out irresistible, sonically charged, fuzzy garage rock soaked full of melodies. Think of the best rock ‘n roll from the 50’s/60’s and stir it up with the likes of The Sonics and The Cramps. ‘Here We Are The Courettes’ sees their first two albums – 2015’s eight track ‘Here Are The Courettes’ and 2018’s ‘We Are The Courettes’ re-released as a two-on-one cd and remastered vinyl after original copies of the releases sold out quickly.

‘Here Are The Courettes’ is packed with raw, grinding guitar licks, stomping drums and wailing vocals. From opening tracks ‘I’ve Been Walking’ and ‘Go! Go! Go!’ it really is a non-stop crunching garage blues fest that will have you on your feet within seconds. ‘The Boy I Love’ ushers in pure melody that could be anyone like The Ronnettes or The Shrangri-Las if they were backed by The Stooges or MC5 whereas anyone with any love for The Cramps will fall completely for ‘Push It Too Hard’. Relentless could be one word to describe ‘Here Are The Courettes’, from the first notes to the last it grabs you hard, throttles you, throws you around and finally dumps you exhausted somewhere dingy where all you can think is “I need more of this”.

That comes in the form of album two. “We Are The Courettes” continues from exactly where “Here Are..” finished. It’s only a little less raw. A piano and some backing vocals sneak in and there are more tranquil moments. After the savage assault of garage punk opener ‘Hoodoo Hop’ comes ‘Time Is Ticking’, a real dance number, the perfect beat pop, twangy guitar laden classic that at one time would have packed the dance floors of American prom nights. Sharp guitars, wild vocals and the super charged energy return with ‘Come Inside’ and ‘Nobody But You’ and the ‘Strawberry Boy’ throws a real curveball into the mix. Calm, gentle, almost soothing – “I could die in your blue eyes, I will bring you the moonlight, I will kill for your smile..” – and sweetly sinister. Coffin Joe (Brazilian TV horror host) guests on ‘Voodoo Doll’, a manic, old school horror number. From here on ‘We Are The Courettes’ remains an absolute joy. It’s packed full of fun, unpolished songs that make you feel alive. Scuzzy, grimy, grungy, garage rock ‘n roll with not a dull moment anywhere. It’s loud, in your face, sonically charged energy. In short it’s pretty damn irresistible.

None of this will be news to fans of The Courettes and for those people there’s a new album ‘Back In Mono’ due for release late summer. But for those who need to catch up quickly and those who just need a fantastic dose of hard hitting, raw, sharp, primal garage noise then this is the place to start. ‘Here We Are The Courettes’ is released on 16^th July via Damaged Goods as one cd and as two separate vinyl albums – ‘We Are The Courettes’ on limited edition (1000 copies) red vinyl and ‘Here Are The Courettes’ on limited edition (1000 copies) cream vinyl.

Here We Are The Courettes can be pre-ordered via Damaged Goods.