[JANGLE GARAGE] “I love the Hugs...They’re kind of like the Libertines but are taking it all from their own direction,” claimed Libertine Carl Barât in a 2007 NME interview. Elements of the garage revival play big parts in both bands’ sounds. But if the Hugs and the Libertines are in the same garage, the Libertines are rebuilding a transmission while the Hugs practice their harmonies in a corner, glass jars of screws keeping time. And oh, what harmonies. The vocals, especially on 2012’s Dirty Gems EP, sound a lot closer to the psych-folk aural rainbows of the Byrds than any garage rockers we know. The reversed guitars only distance them from any garage comparisons. The Hugs became a Portland staple when they were signed to Columbia while students at Cleveland High School, and if anything they’re more legendary now that they’re independent."
- Mitch Lillie
http://www.wweek.com/portland/event-134860-the_hugs_mojave_bird_hypnogogue.html
