In the run up to this years Franklin Fest in Edinburgh, our very own Girl in the Garage @ Muso's Guide will be profiling some of the acts taking part, as well as chatting to the organisers and DJ's (or at least the one's who replied to my questions!).   

First up are Brazilian and Danish garage rock duo - The Courettes, who will be playing on Friday 24th June (that's a week on Friday already!) before hot-footing it down to the Big Smoke to play at the Weirdsville club night with Les Darlings on Saturday 25th. 

Daringly describing themselves as 'A blast of Jungle wildness & Scandinavian rock 'n' roll! and ‘Riot grrrl in the garage’. Let me introduce to you Flavia Couri on atomic fuzz guitar and screaming raw vocals, and ‘Beat! Beat! Beat! man’ Martin Couri on loud as hell drums. They are one of the busiest bands on the scene. Juggling gigs and family life, is just a walk in the park... 

Debbie: What are you guys up to at the moment in terms of gigs/releases?

The Courettes will bring the brand new single 'Boom! Dynamite!' + B-side killer 'T-C-H-A-U' recorded at Toe Rag Studios and produced by Liam Watson. And for those who still don't have we're also bringing our debut album Here are The Courettes, released in 2015. Still unreleased split 7' 'Hoodoo Ho' by The Courettes + 'Big Butt Bonnie' by Powersolo is also in our suitcase.

We played this year at The Cosmic Trip Festival in France, the Garageville in Germany, the SPOT Festival in Denmark - from where we got a great review by Rolling Stone's David Fricke  - and we are gonna be at Gutter Island Festival in Denmark and the great Franklin Fest in Scotland. We have one more show in the UK the 25th in London at Weirdsville.

Debbie: For those not in the know, would you like to tell our readers a bit about yourselves? 

The Courettes' history is full of interesting facts! It all began 10.000 km apart. Flavia (from Brazil) met Martin (from Denmark) on a tour in Brazil in 2013 with our former bands and fell in love. Now together in life and music, we are The Courettes! In February this year, two became three with the arrival of our baby boy Lennon (Debbie: sweeet!! congratulations!!). The very day after his birth, we played a show! We went straight from the hospital to the soundcheck. We're always up to some full-speed garage madness!

Debbie: Love it. Why should we come and see you play at the Franklin Fest (if the above is not reason enough!)?

You should come and see us play at the Franklin Fest if you're up to some wild fuzz guitars, go-go rhythms and riot grrrrl from Ipanema screaming! And I bet you never saw a half Danish half Brazilian band before, huh?

Debbie: You've sold me. What you are looking forward to the most about playing at the Franklin Fest?

We are really looking forward to play in Scotland for the first time! And also to play with so many cool bands, it's really a great line up!

We can't disagree with that. Thank you so much to Flavia and Martin for taking the time out to chat to Muso's Guide.

Links for tickets to the Franklin Fest can be purchased here:

http://www.franklinfest.co.uk/franklinfest2015/ticket-sales/

https://www.facebook.com/courettes

https://soundcloud.com/thecourettes

For anyone who hasn't been fortunate enough to catch this Edinburgh high-energy garage three piece live, let me introduce you to Johnny (drums, backing vocals), Will (bass, backing vocals) and Andy (guitar, lead vocals). 

The album opens with the sound of a tolling bell, just to get you in the mood! (it is true though that singer Andy's voice was once likened to a corpse being dragged across gravel).

'10 More Hours' opens, and there's some nice phasing over the top of the track, which gives it an extra layer; coupled with a strong repetitive riff, it makes for much hip shake-ability, as does up-beat 'Stupid Is As Stupid Does', and the excellent 'Swingtown'.

Tracks like 'Egg & Butter Junk', (stompy, swampy and twisted), and 'That Hole In Your Face Blues' are laden with heavy riffs a la MC5 / The Stooges. As is 'We Don’t Need You', which has an added heavy psychedelic rock feel, reminiscent of The Heads.

Overall, the band tend to concentrate more on the riff rather than showcasing twiddly guitar solos, which is very refreshing, and this makes for a good solid, no nonsense, rock 'n' roll record. You can hear echos of Dr Feelgood / The Pirates / The Cramps / Eddie & The Hot Rods / The Monsters throughout, but make no mistake, this is Geek Maggot Bingo.

The album was recorded and mixed by Angus McPake (of The Thanes, Les BOF!) at his Ravencraig Studio in Edinburgh, with vintage recording gear.

The album is available from Elvis Shakespeare and Hogs Head Music in Edinburgh, and instore and online at New Hellfire Club Glasgow. Or you can buy it through their bandcamp page here.