Wednesday, June 06, 2007

THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DELAYED GLORY OF THE INHALANTS

In the midst of the fireburst of raw, simple, gnarly American garage punk of the early 1990s, a few masterpieces stand out. I’ve been posting a few of them on this site, and have detailed a short list of them here as well. It’s probably time to get THE INHALANTS 45 up, don’t you think? As it turns out, this Texas band put out five 45s in the early 90s, but the one I “adored”, and I don’t say that lightly, is the “Kolchak, The Night Stalker / Middle Ages” single from 1994 on Bag of Hammers records (Jimmy The Bud Man! How are ya!!). I was incorrect only on chronology when I wrote on my old blog:

More Texas ineptitude from a short-lived band who nailed it on their first try. Hectic, sloppy and chaotic in all the right places, played about two beats faster than the band themselves can keep up with. Singer has one of those punk rock voices for the ages, all nasaly and fried like a true barroom poet.

‘Twas their second try. It’s such a demented, joyous piece of genius, one that I’d like to teach the whole world to sing if I can. Get started by clicking the links below.

Play or Download THE INHALANTS – “Kolchak, The Night Stalker” (A-side)
Play or Download THE INHALANTS – “Middle Ages” (B-side)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really not-so-great story, The Inhalants were playing a house party in mesa in the mid 90's, they were playing with, if memory serves, the Drags and the Fells. Actually, come to geographic memory, maybe not (those were the two fallback bands, good ones mind you, at the time) I do remember mostly two things, it was before Lisa Inhalant dumped Boris and hooked up with a Fallout, and it was the night the Mesa PD decided to break into the house, break a fish tank, and then proceed to pepper spray everybody. The main thing I remember was I *hearted* Dana's drumming. It was like Peg from the Gories w/more fills. If *I* was gonna pick an Inhalants single, I'd go more w/ the "It was Hyper-real" one. The Lp was pretty much one of the underappreciated Estrus recs of the time. Shit, I still cannot remember if the Drags played, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Motards (although I could swear Toby Motard was there that night, along w/Boris.)

This only reminds me of the Wiretaps single where Lisa did up in the PNW with the awesome GG cover, oh yeah "Don't Talk to Me", but the flip was the ultimate anti-Gravity, anti-San Diego, anti-turds, anti Ian svevevevevvonius, anti-guys- named Trent song- "Romulan Invasion". Static Party can kiss my ass.

And while we ae at it, I hope you own any of the Thundercats 45s.

A Thin Line... said...

Fell on some hard times a number of year ago and I had to get rid of all of my 45's and the lion share of my LP's to pay for grad school. Of the ones I miss the the most, The Inhalants (and all the Night Kings of course) stands out in my mind. Thanks for posting it.