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

Musos' Guide, as a rule, doesn’t usually review cover bands, however Fanny Pelmet And The Bastard Suits definitely deserve a mention. Not only because they covered some of my personal '60s favourites such as The Standells' ‘Rari’, The Eyes' ‘You’re too much’, Sharon Tandy's ‘Daughter Of The Sun’ and Shocking Blue's brilliant ‘Send Me A Postcard’ (debuted at the Franklin tonight!), but also because they are a breath of fresh air, and are helping to keep this amazing music alive.  

Fresh from their tour supporting the King Khan & BBQ Show 'down south' are Newcastle’s Ferriday Fireballs. Singer Flyin’ Brian is a bit of a legend, and latterly a member of one of the most fabulous garage bands ever - Los Coyote Men. They open with The Stooges '1970' followed by a raucous rendition of George Jones's 'White Lightnin', but it's not all covers and their very own ‘She’s A Twister’ proves to be on a par. The crowd love their hypnotising primitive beat. It's stripped to the bone rock 'n' roll at its best or worst (depending on how you see it - but let's go with best), and above all it's a FUN show. Brian encourages the crowd and bar staff to dance, and there's cheeky banter, followed by lots of stopping and starting. It all gets a bit shambolic; the Fireballs' knocking out a few random punk covers - but it’s certainly entertaining. Finishing with a cover of Bo Diddley’s ubiquitous ‘Who Do You love’; Stephanie Pelmet joins on harmonica, Andy Bastard Suit takes over guitar duties, whilst Brian goes a bit loopy ‘it’s the codeine kicking in’ he tells us... :)

Top of the bill tonight are The Reverse Cowgirls from Glasgow opening with their new single ‘Hit The Sidewalk’ which has a distinct, soulful garage groove. Their Facebook page quotes that they ‘write simple music and make it complicated’ and I can’t disagree with that, because it’s really difficult to define their sound, spanning punk/blues/country/garage and more. Possibly taking their influences from the likes of Gun Club / Cramps / Primevals; but it would be very unfair to say that they are restricted by the sum of the output of their contemporaries. They have their own unique and potent sound. They are extremely accomplished with a massive presence; "In a completely different league" a friend said. And even though there are only four of them, the Franklin almost seems too small to contain them. Frontman Hugh McLachlan is quite mesmerising. He appears to go through the full range of emotions tonight. Bassist Alaine Alison Walls is right there by his side, and they naturally complement each other, and of course not forgetting the other members of the band who make up this powerhouse. Notable moments are the fuzztastic 'Cry Cry', country style 'As God's My Witness' and 'God Bless The Queen' = a very happy crowd. We hope you come back soon.

A special mention to Jim on the decks spinning, garage gunk, glam junk, rockin' crunk and (very) daft punk!

Well done to the organisers again for another cracking night - The Black Needles and Oh! Gunquit will be playing at the next Franklin Rock 'n' Roll Club on Friday 13th November - click here for details...