Honestly, when this reviewer first looked at the debut CD from the Grosse Pointe-based Decks and read over the accompanying press release, he groaned. Was yet another local garage band with a "the" preceding their name hanging onto the ever-fraying remains of White's Stripes? That Jim Diamond and Eddie (aka brother of Jack White) Gillis handle production duties did nothing to calm those initial fears. And that the foursome is fresh out of its teens made for a strong shiver; the Displays and the Muldoons, after all, are already providing the city's garage scene with enough youth injection. So I sat back in my office chair, sipped at my tea with careless abandon and prepared to be sent into a tedium-inspired coma.

Shame on me. And kudos to the Decks for the surprise (something that, 10 years into a rock writing career, few bands manage anymore).

The secret to the Decks is their apparent and obvious love of surf acts from across the decades, including such past greats as the Ventures, Dick Dale and the Barracudas. The riff on second track "DTC," for example, is pure Dale, although the stunning guitar work is complemented by Alex Glendening's manic vocal delivery. This garage-surf amalgamation is then made all the more fun by the addition of female backing vocals, courtesy of Maria Nuccilli (also the drummer), Molly-Jean Schoen (also a guitarist), Ellen Chamberlain (yet another guitarist) and, in the case of "Bad Taste," one Mia Gillis. The ladies lend the band an early '60s girl-group feel, a la the Ronettes or the Shangri-Las.

The whole combination is positively intoxicating. That they've added a completely fresh twist to the familiar Detroit garage rock sound is exciting, to say the least. Let's not jinx them by boldly predicting success. But, at least to these ears, the Decks are among the best new bands to have danced out of the city in some time.

http://www.metrotimes.com/music/review.asp?rid=25081

Despite the fact that everyone’s rapidly outgrowing teendom, here’s this nice article about us in this week’s Real Detroit.

We really need new pictures with Molly!
http://www.realdetroitweekly.com/article_3613.shtml

The Decks
Teenagers of the Revolution

There seems to be a bit of a generation gap between most musicians in the Detroit scene today. You have the older groups like The Dirtbombs, and then there are younger kid groups like The Muldoons or The Displays. Where did the late high school and college kids go? Are they too busy studying? I seriously doubt that and I guess that’s how we ended up with one of the newest promising bands on the scene, The Decks.

Coming from the musical hotbed of Grosse Pointe, The Decks met during high school and began jamming. "Alex and I started the band during high school because we liked the same music and had fun writing songs," The Decks’ drummer Maria says. "We met Hank through a friend when he moved here from Oklahoma, and he’s been our bassist." Their newest member, guitarist Molly Jean, joined up after a former bandmate moved on to college out of state. "We played a few shows with Molly when she was persuing a solo career and both had mutual admiration for each other’s music, so when we needed a new guitarist she was our go-to gal."

The sound the fearsome foursome created is one that is a jangled up mess of pop visions, Television and the Talking Heads. Over the sounds the band creates is the voice of lead singer/guitarist Alex, who sounds like a wavering version of Gordon Gano, Mick Jagger and Ray Davies. Slashing through the definitive pop rhythms and melodies created by his bandmates, Alex’s voice adds another layer of instrumentation to each track with his intriguing lyrical delivery. In 2007, the people of Detroit took notice of The Decks with a major sense of infatuation. While they’ve played several large shows, it seems as though the highlight of the band’s year was having their second single released on Dirtbombs’ drummer, Ben Blackwell’s, label, Cass Records. "Last year some people bought our demo and self-released 7" and it got back to him or something."

Now that’s cool.

The Decks • 12/21 • The Blind Pig

-Maria

As you can probably see, we just finished up in the studio.... we did 7 new songs and are pretty pleased with the outcome. And the experience! Keeping Hank in the guitar amp room, seeing the building rain, getting Ellen to sing with me on a song you haven't heard yet....

We're also pretty pleased that we can finally put up new songs on myspace...... so yeah. Listen, please! Tell your friends! And if you like what you hear, don't forget we have a 7" for sale and shows coming up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,
maria

So tonight during the end of our set at Jacoby's I totally tried to do a jump/maybe jumping jack/maybe I don't know what I was thinking, but it ended up with me knocking over a lamp and it smashing all over Maria's drum set and our amps and it was one giant mess.

Roknrol4lyfe.

Love,
Alex