Baltimore’s Drew Owen brings his home-recording wrecking machine to the Buccaneer this Thursday night when his band Sick Thoughts play with locals Aquarian Blood and Gimp Teeth. Since claiming the garage-punk crown from New Orleans provocateur Buck Biloxi last year, Owen has placed himself at the top of the trash heap, with his only real competition in massive-output perhaps being Martin Meyer of Lumpy and the Dumpers (St. Louis). Sick Thoughts released new music almost every month of 2014, throwing songs out in the form of singles, cassette tapes, and EPs. By the end of the year, Owen had worked with just about every relevant garage punk label in the game including Slovenly, Goner, Kenrock, Goodbye Boozy, and Going Underground.
Josh Miller
Sick Thoughts
With so much recorded output released in such little time, it comes as no surprise that Owen frequently changes up his sound, dabbling in power pop, hardcore punk, and even “techno synth sludge metal.” But no matter what genre of music he’s tackling/making fun of, Owen’s approach is almost immediately identifiable. And while it might be easy to knock Sick Thoughts for taking the quantity over quality route, Owen’s prolific discography seems to be the product of one thing: he’s having fun. And I don’t mean he’s having fun in an ironic pizza-party-thrash-metal way, or a tongue-in-cheek, dance-around-onstage-in-my-underwear type of way. His music is still authentic and believable, it’s just obvious that this perma-teen from Baltimore is enjoying what he’s doing, which is refreshing in a genre that has plenty of bands exuding a fake, tough-guy attitude.
