13 – Garage Rock Underground Party, ca. 2004

Crank up those amplifiers, folks … we’re time-travelling back to a specific period in time 20 years ago! This latest Messy Mix is a throwback to that sweet spot in modern pop history before that weird thing called “independent rock” conquered the mainstream and basically made everything “indie” in some form. It was a time when a new and exciting generation of guitar-driven bands reclaimed rock and roll and blasted it into the world with confidence and that decent level of youthful arrogance you need in that musical territory. 

This mix is my personal tribute to those sweaty nights out in sticky alternative clubs when you bands were performing while the DJ played classics and hottest underground stuff for all the cool kids in town. It was bands like The Rakes and Bloc Party who introduced me to a new musical world and of course there’s early stuff by these bands in this set which contains tracks that were released between 2002 and 2004. Next to early tunes by well-known acts like Franz Ferdinand, Gossip and Maximo Park there are also lesser known bands like The Departure, The Others, The Long Blondes or The Von Bondies (of course, they all had to have a “the”) in there.