Bare Wires patent their own brand of electrified garage punk, fusing glam glitter pop with garage punk grime, producing a sound that has been called everything from “Soft Punk” to “Leather Jacket Rock”. The Oakland-based trio started in 2007 as a side project of Matthew Melton with the release of a crude garage punk single entitled “Voodoo Doll”, released on European label Solid Sex Lovie Doll. Adding his own analog recording system into the mix in search of a rawer sound, Melton continued to record under the name Bare Wires, releasing the Artificial Clouds LP on Tic Tac Totally in 2009. With solid mid-fi production and a minimalist aesthetic, Artificial Cloudsdisposed the jagged, proto-punk edges of the previous recordings and moved towards a smoother, hook-laden, but no less scrappy sound. Bare Wires new “smooth punk” aesthetic was expressed on the Let Down 7″ (Milk n Herpes), a dirty, sleazy pair of fuzz-doused songs with guitars ripping through a crunching amplifier on a hazy cloud of smoke. With their latest album, Cheap Perfume, Melton delivers ten stadium-ready tracks of glam-infused, rock n’ roll gems, still remaining true to the sincerity and authenticity that has become his songwriting trademark.

Cheap Perfume is out now via Southpaw Records on CD and 10″ vinyl, as well as on cassette via Burger Records