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The Bobby Lees

A band that proves it pays to think young, the Bobby Lees are a frantic garage punk act from Woodstock, New York, whose sound is fast, fresh, energetic, and filled with a snotty sense of fun. Boasting a revved-up attitude and a level of precision that matches the tempos without making them sound stiff, the Bobby Lees made a bracing debut on their 2018 album Beauty Pageant. They got tighter, speedier, and rowdier on 2020's Skin Suit, produced by Jon Spencer, and they developed a more polished but no less powerful approach for their third LP, 2022's Bellevue. The Bobby Lees were founded in 2017 by guitarist, lead singer, songwriter, and actress Sam Quartin. She had been living in New York City and was trying to put together a band, but was having no luck before she moved upstate to Woodstock. Quartin, who was 23 at the time, was looking for young players with energy and attitude, and a friend suggested she check out the Rock Academy, a music school in Woodstock that taught budding rockers from the ages of 8 through 18. She took their advice and ended up finding just what she was looking for in a trio of teenagers whose ages at the time topped out at 17 -- guitarist Nick Casa, bassist Kendall Wind, and drummer Macky Bowman. After some woodshedding, Quartin had the powerhouse combo she was dreaming of, and the quartet adopted the name the Bobby Lees. Quartin already had a batch of songs at the ready, and in 2018 they self-released an album, Beauty Pageant. The LP made an impression in the garage punk underground, and the Bobby Lees were soon opening for the Black Lips, Shannon & the Clams, Future Islands, and the Chats. 2019 saw the Bobby Lees release a new track, "Guttermilk," in digital and cassette formats. Jon Spencer, frontman with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Pussy Galore, invited the Bobby Lees to open a show for his group Boss Hog, and he liked their performance enough to offer to produce an album for them. This time, Quartin collaborated on the songs with her bandmates, and the vintage rock undertones audible on the first album gave way to a leaner and more manic attack. With Spencer at the controls, the record attracted the attention of established indie label Alive Naturalsound Records, and the band struck a deal to release their second LP, Skin Suit, in July 2020. The Bobby Lees hit the road for extensive touring once the album was out, reinforcing their reputation as a powerful live act. Later that year, the band self-released Beauty Pageant: Redux, a live-in-the-studio re-recording of most of the tunes from their debut album. In 2021, the group headed to Nashville to work with producer and engineer Vance Powell at his Sputnik Sound Studio. Boasting a more diverse collection of songs, with blues, jazz, and classic rock showing a greater prominence in the mix, the Bobby Lees put the finishing touches on their most polished material to date, and in mid-2022, they emerged with a four-song EP, Hollywood Junkyard. The set turned out to be a preview of the band's third proper album, Bellevue, released in October 2022. Named for the infamous mental hospital (where Sam Quartin was once a patient), Bellevue was the Bobby Lees' first LP for Ipecac Records, the adventurous label run by Mike Patton of Faith No More.
© Mark Deming /TiVo
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Discography

13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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