Even the Beach Boys were once a garage band, and after them came the waves of kids playing rock 'n' roll somewhere between the surf and the surface streets. Then when punk showed up in the '70s, it was just an adjustment in hairstyle and speed. The Buzzcocks did this a whole hemisphere away, the Real Kids and the Modern Lovers did it on the other side of the country, and the Crowd and the Simpletones did it just a few towns over. And now Tijuana Panthers come striding proudly out of their hometown of Long Beach, California, with Semi-Sweet, their most fully realized album yet.
The first single from Semi-Sweet, "Tony's Song" matches the relentless energy of the Wipers with instantly catchy beach-punk harmonies while the B-side is a pitch-perfect Nerves cover, a reverent redo of "One Way Ticket" by a band that in sound and sentiment both were pretty much the Tijuana Panthers of their day.
