FRANKIE & THE WITCH FINGERS - BONEHEAD SINGLE REVIEW

The new single from Frankie and The Witch Fingers sends a resounding message - they’re going to be the most frenetic, mesmeric psychedelic garage group in the modern rock landscape or die trying.

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First and foremost, Frankie and The Witch Fingers have always worn the influences of the 60s and 70s on their sleeves. The group’s first four records, released across the 2010s, could easily be passed off as long-lost cuts from the aftermath of Beatlemania in the late 60s and early 70s. Then from 2019’s ZAM onward, the band branched steadily into progressive rock and art punk, injecting new complexity into their winning garage formula. 

Careening through complex song structures while staying as elemental and groovy as those classic bands once were has been hit-or-miss for the band thus far, but "Bonehead" finally has that delicate balance secured. The four minutes of this new single are ripe with good ideas, cramming in an EP’s worth of riffs and grooves, wasting neither time nor kinetic energy. If they were still the same band they were in the 2010s, Frankie and The Witch Fingers would probably separate those ideas into a few more repetitive, straightforward tunes. If this song had come out on their last few records, they’d probably have extended each of this new single’s various sections and risked letting each overstay its welcome. However, the group has emerged from its last release cycle playing tighter and meaner than before. They’re far too focused to be a proper jam band, but not so linear they lose their electrifying rawness in the process.

Across their recent releases, Frankie and The Witch Fingers has picked away at the evils of the digital age, slowly becoming less abstract on the lyrical front. "Bonehead" accelerates this process by fully embracing and modernizing the anti-establishment lyrical habits of the band’s well-documented hippie influences. In a world riddled with shrinking attention spans and rising tensions, "Bonehead" takes aim at the incensed buffoons of the world, with singer Dylan Sizemore shouting “They want you falling to pieces / your bodies falling beneath them”. 

Frankie and The Witch Fingers are at their peak when they’re cramming cool guitar licks, modulating grooves, and memorable, shouty hooks into a tight few minutes - compact tunes like this one might be their ideal form. Their true-blue blend of garage rock filth and psychedelic grandiosity is more honed than ever, and if this song is the first taste of a forthcoming release, it will almost certainly be their strongest to date.