A SHORT RUN THROUGH A BIG PILE OF 45s

You folks who’ve sent us 45s the past couple months – this is your time. Thanks for your patience and for sending us stuff in the first place. Here are abbreviated reviews of several singles that the mailman brought Detailed Twang recently, along with two I purchased last month:

CHEAP TIME – “Spoiled Brat” 7”EP

Simple, snotty, RED CROSS-inspired rasp punk. Similar in style & spirit to early 90s Texas doofus-punks THE INHALANTS. Album coming soon on In The Red.

THE LAMPS – “Fred Astaire” 7”EP

Hands down best thing I’ve heard from LA distorto-garage kingpins THE LAMPS, debut LP included. Mud-caked primitive shit rock with bleary-eyed depresso vibe to spare.

GEISHA GIRLS – “In The Monotone / Last Touch” 45

Panicky angular 80s rock in the MISSION OF BURMA style, with a dose of Middle Class-ish barked vocals as well. In fact “Last Touch” was lifted straight off of the second Middle Class single, showing some serious class and taste. Not half bad!

CHEVEU – “My Answer Is Yes! / Lola Langusta” 45

(45 is the one pictured above) I remember the A-side from CHEVEU’s wild but star-crossed show last month here in San Francisco, when they essentially fried a P.A. with overloaded analog synth & static-chop guitar. They were outstanding, even though they kept profusely apologizing for almost destroying an entire club’s equipment. No problem! B-side’s the real winner here, a strange slide-guitar country skiffle with electro-drumbeat. Perhaps recorded in the South of France circa ’71 with Mick, Keith, Gram Parsons, and Gary Numan?

TYVEK / CYGNUS split 45

TYVEK are a big recent favorite around this house (you gotta hear “Fast Metabolism”!); I bought this one off the band the same night as the Cheveu show. Their untitled side is a spookhouse dirge, a ’79-style UK-influenced echo-laden weirdo. Cool. CYGNUS are like that, but a comparatively formless, tuneless, dark and impenetrable charnel house of horrors. Decent single, I can think of better ones even in this list.

JUNIOR MAKHNO – “The Theater Of The Macabre” 7”EP

Strange and pleasingly ill-fitting mash of distorted horror rap, electronic tweedling, screams, monster sounds, and manipulations of all sorts. Mostly instrumental, and heavy in every sense of the word. Kindred spirits of the aforementioned CHEVEU for sure.

THE TOUCHED – “Funeral Dress” 7”EP

Loads of chaos, feedback and lo-fidelity cheap punk thrills. Fans of THE LEWD and other alcoholiday-taking, trackmarks-up-the-arms gutter-punk bands will find the spirit dutifully kept here.

TOUCH-ME-NOTS - “Cool Enough For California” / GRAVE BLANKETS “Foreward” split 45

The TOUCH-ME-NOTS jog outside of their comfort zone for a relative ballad, a hooky pop song delivered in their southern fried rockabilly tear-it-up style. GRAVE BLANKETS present a live, loud, distorted blues. Very middling.

TOUCH-ME-NOTS / RED ROCKETS split 7”EP

“Life Of Crime” (no, not that one) is easily in the Touch-Me-Nots’ top five so far, a bouncy, one-take scorcher with a swaggering NY DOLLS feel to it. “This Kind of Music” is nearly as hot, with vocals multi-tracked and echoing off of every surface. RED ROCKETS are standard-issue, government cheese bar punk.