California’s finest purveyors of hyper-literate garage rock return with their first new music since 2019’s debut release, “Black Rain.” Poet Robert Lavett Smith’s lyrics are as bittersweetly poignant as ever, and while Preacher Boy’s guitar sounds may be edgier than on the debut, they’re counterbalanced by the singular sound of a Vox Continental

California’s finest purveyors of hyper-literate garage rock return with their first new music since 2019’s debut release, “Black Rain.” Poet Robert Lavett Smith’s lyrics are as bittersweetly poignant as ever, and while Preacher Boy’s guitar sounds may be edgier than on the debut, they’re counterbalanced by the singular sound of a Vox Continental organ, keeping things firmly in classic garage rock territory. Most distinctive is the evolution of the band’s groove, made possible by the introduction of 13-year-old drum phenom Clara Bay Marinelli Watkins, who delivers 2 minutes and 34 seconds of percolating percussion to underpin the poetic proto-punk proceedings.