At long last, the garage revival has its very own
Pandoras. Youngsters may not remember that L.A.-based all-female trash-rock quartet (two members of which formed
the Muffs after the death of leader
Paula Pierce), but in their early days,
the Pandoras tore apart the polite revivalism and mainstream pop aspirations of
the Go-Go's and
the Bangles with a gleefully snotty take on
Nuggets-style proto-punk, and although they unfortunately turned into an exceedingly lame hair metal band toward the end, their early material still sounds great today. So does
Thee Minks'
Are You Ready Now, a similarly untrammeled blast of neo-garage attitude. Songs like the booze-fueled "151 Girl" and the unapologetically aggressive "Shut Up and Kiss Me." ("Put your money where your mouth is and put that mouth on me!" is a demand worthy of at least
Joan Jett, if not
Iggy Pop.) A sly sense of humor colors all of these songs, particularly "(I Wanna) Do a Woggle," a tribute to the Georgia garage rockers of the '90s, as does a sense of history: alongside originals by singers
Hope Diamond and Liz Lixx are fine covers of
DMZ's '70s punk classic "First Time" and the moderately obscure
Shandells track "Gorilla." There's nothing of great musical import here, but
Are You Ready Now is unfailingly entertaining from start to finish.