Many of you may remember the band Gun from NW Indiana, and you had requested their music be played on OKR’s podcast years back… well… Straight outta Hammond, IN, aka da region, here come the reigning kings of sleazey party rock… now called Snake Wine! After a few kick-ass EPs… they are back with their new self-titled LP that came out last month, chock-full of grit, grim, and riffs galore. The new Snake Wine LP has eleven blistering, raw, unpolished tunes that sound like they were recorded in a hot garage right off the expressway at two in the morning, fueled entirely by cheap booze, a couple of bumps, and a few greasy-ass slices from House of Pizza. Seriously…. this album is the “Rock” we need right now…. it’s a sweaty collision of classic garage-rock fuckery and hook-heavy punk… you know…. pure, high-octane rock music that smacks ya in the face and has ya coming back for more.
Their self-titled album is a straightforward banger from start to finish… but here are three songs that stood out for me after my first couple of listens. First up… it starts right off with the song “I Need A Hook,” a high-speed, power-packed punch to the head to help ya get the bones moving in the morning after a night of pounding Hamms with your friends. No joke. Helped me a ton this morning. Next up… “How Ya Spell Love” is a rocker…. a roller… and a nice little singalong song with all that guitar front and center, even with a little slide action that would even make Keith Richards happy enough to finally die. I mean… how the hell is he still alive? Didn’t he cause a cocaine shortage in the 60s-70s? Whatever. The last one that I kept coming back to the little garage reverb rocker. “Bad Son,” which will get ya swaying back and forth with that fuzzed-out bass and distorted, reverbed-out guitar…. just hope ya don’t fall over first from that 10th shot of good good when soaking in this kick ass song.
Here they are live at Reggies in Chicago in March, 2026 on ReggiesTV on YouTube.
Snake Wine is a guitar-heavy garage rock party band with some slight dips in the psych-pond. This new self-titled LP from Snake Wine is legit and one of the best rock albums I’ve heard in a while for getting any bar or club rockin’. Hope to catch them live sometime here in Milwaukee in the future, as their live shows are crazy good. Get in your ride… turn it up… and rip around the city, playing the game “first bar on the right” with your buds, or at least bust out the bong in your living room and have a singalong on the couch. Either should work for ya. Give this album a spin today.
Links of interest:
https://www.instagram.com/snake_wine.nwi/
https://snakewine-nwi.bandcamp.com/album/snake-wine-lp
