TWIST AND BURN!, VOLUME TWO

The next volume of garage punk 45s and LP cuts I made for myself a few years ago moves partially out of the 1980s and into the first year or two of the nineties. Looking at the assembled lineup here, which I have to say is pretty goddamn impressive, it’s running about 50/50. As I made more volumes of these – and don’t worry, I’ll probably end up posting them all before this site runs its course – I added an incremental year before tapping out around 1994 (which, to my way of thinking, is right around the time the third wave of punk rock tapped out as well).

Several of these tracks have been posted on Detailed Twang before, sure, but certainly not grouped with garage punk rock of this order of magnitude. I do so very much hope that you enjoy it.

Track list:

TWIST AND BURN!, VOLUME 2

1. THE GORIES – Telepathic
2. CLAW HAMMER – Bullet In My Head
3. MORLOCKS – By My Side
4. CHEATER SLICKS – Why
5. DIRTY LOVERS – Teenage Love Bomb
6. THE NIGHTS AND DAYS – Diddy Wah Diddy
7. HONEYMOON KILLERS – Get It Hot
8. SUPERCHARGER – Sooprize Package for Mr. Mineo
9. BOYS FROM NOWHERE – Beg
10. LAZY COWGIRLS – Goddamn Bottle
11. GORLS – Bongo Beat
12. FALL-OUTS – Greed
13. MYSTREATED – Wait and See
14. THE MUMMIES – I’m Down
15. THE NIGHTS AND DAYS – Goes Without Saying
16. THE HUMPERS – My Machine
17. ART PHAG – Molly n’ Bobby
18. MORLOCKS – In The Cellar
19. HONEYMOON KILLERS – Gettin’ Hot
20. THE GORIES – Hate
21. DIRTY LOVERS – All I Want
22. CLAW HAMMER – Self Destruct
23. THE MUMMIES – Whitecaps Pt. II
24. SUPERCHARGER – South City Psycho
25. LAZY COWGIRLS – Sock It To Me Santa
26. THE NIGHTS AND DAYS – Yeah
27. MYSTREATED – Listen
28. THE HUMPERS – Loser’s Club
29. BOYS FROM NOWHERE – Rocket to Nowhere

Download TWIST AND BURN!, VOLUME TWO (this is a .zip file)

THE WHITEFRONTS - "6 BUSES"

(This is adapted from a post I published a couple of years ago in which I posted this song as well).

Who were the WHITEFRONTS? Well, when I started college at UC-Santa Barbara in 1985, they were sorta my hipster cousin & his pals' favorite local band down there. I never got to see them; I think they graduated or got kicked out or something around '86 and moved to San Francisco, where they gigged around for a bit and then called it a day a couple of years later. My cousin used to play me some great "cassette tapes" of their stuff (do you know what those are?), which ranged from Velvet Underground-inspired freakouts (like the track I'm posting here, the fantastic "6 Buses" from the "Roast Belief" album) to Hawaiian slide guitar weirdness to hippie bongo workouts to Meat Puppets-style fake hardcore punk. And lots of genres and styles in between.

When you hear this track, perhaps you'll wish to start the Whitefronts revival with me?

Play The Whitefronts, "6 Buses"

Download THE WHITEFRONTS - "6 Buses"

GRASS WIDOW & THE SPECTRES OF MINIMALISM PAST

I’d have to vote GRASS WIDOW as my favorite current band right about now. This new San Francisco trio have one-upped themselves on their newest 45rpm 12”EP on the Captured Tracks label, moving greatly into an echoey, treble-heavy, clattering sound ripped straight from the late 70s Los Angeles scene, and most specifically from THE URINALS. I have heard bands take stabs at approximating the unique, monotonic, minimalist DIY sound of this particular band for thirty years, never once achieving anything as good as Grass Widow do on their new record – which, you may not be surprised to hear, has a cover of The Urinals’ “Black Hole”.

GRASS WIDOW, though, are all female, and they add a level of off-kilter harmonization that achieves the same sort of effect that John Talley-Jones did with poor recording equipment and echoes layered into the vocals. All three women sing, usually in high-pitched, sing-songy cadences that, in unison, sometimes sound as if they’re ricocheting around a Vatican cathedral. The new record has only four tracks, two of which I’d like you to listen to today. When they get to “Black Hole” at the end of Side 2, they do it so straight & so naturally that it could very well be called “claimed”. In other words, they do nothing special with it, and it sounds almost exactly like the original in spirit, tone and form. Totally love it. They rip it up live as well. See what I mean by jumping on this bandwagon before they become even bigger than 100 FLOWERS.

Play Grass Widow, “Tattoo”


Download GRASS WIDOW – “Tattoo”
Download GRASS WIDOW – “Thirsty Again”

TWIST AND BURN!, VOLUME 1

I mentioned a few posts ago about my 2000-2004 fetish of digitizing just about every piece of 33rpm and 45rpm vinyl I’d ever owned, which back then was pretty considerable. Now it’s paltry, but then again, everything I own has been converted to ones and zeroes, and can be quickly posted here now for your listening pleasure. I then made myself themed CD compilations, much like “The Ultimate Post-Punk C-78”. One of my favorite series that I roasted up was my own TWIST AND BURN! set of CDs, which encompassed my favorite 1980s and 1990s garage punk records. This was, by many accounts including my own, a golden era for punk rock music, a “third wave” after the 1960s and 1970s eruptions.

Actually, let’s be honest here: the 1980s by themselves were pretty beat for garage-influenced punk rock music, while being fantastic in other regards. I was only able to get one full CD together of the really, really great stuff, whereas I have multiple CDs’ worth of 1990s stuff, and that’s only the first half of the 90s. Jeez, my CD cover art even includes THE CRAMPS, a band more famously associated with the 1970s. TWIST AND BURN!, VOLUME 1 is kind of a whopper, though – I think you may agree when you download and burn the whole thing. From ART PHAG to the SUICIDE KINGS, from THE NIGHTS AND DAYS to the ORIGINAL SINS, there was some pretty twisted, righteous, raw noise erupting from garages all over the planet. Almost everything here comes from a 45. Here’s the track listing:

TWIST AND BURN!, VOLUME 1

1. DEVIL DOGS – Twist and Burn
2. BO-WEEVILS – That Girl
3. DWARVES – Lick It
4. THEE HYPNOTICS – The Girl’s All Mine
5. THE NIGHTS AND DAYS – Garbage Can
6. ART PHAG – Golf
7. SLOTH – Fetch The Wedge
8. EASTERN DARK – Julie is a Junkie
9. ORIGINAL SINS – Just 14
10. ELECTRIC MANCHAKOU – She Said
11. SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE – Public Enemy #1
12. SISTER RAY – Purgatory
13. SCIENTISTS – There’s a Monster In Me
14. THIRSTY BRATS – White Ghetto
15. DWARVES – Nothing
16. SUICIDE KINGS – Take Yer Medicine
17. EASTERN DARK – Johnny & Dee Dee
18. BOYS FROM NOWHERE – Goin’ Too Far
19. DEVIL DOGS – North Shore Bitch
20. CRAMPS – Weekend On Mars
21. ART PHAG – A Boy and His Gun
22. SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE – Hup Two Three Four
23. THEE HYPNOTICS – All Night Long
24. BOYS FROM NOWHERE – I Don’t Bother
25. SLOTH – Miss Sleazy Underbelly
26. WORKDOGS – Funny $

Download TWIST AND BURN!, VOLUME 1 (this is a .zip file)

ALL SPIT & VINEGAR: THE MEKONS' "NEVER BEEN IN A RIOT"

Like a lot of fortysomethings - as opposed to fiftysomethings - my first exposure to Leeds, England's MEKONS came in the mid-1980s, when they garnered a ton of critical acclaim for their countrified stabs at Americana and released LPs on American labels. People I know who were into The Mekons were really into them. Though I never had a problem with any of that, I'm still waiting to hear the Mekons record that gets me on board - I've just never gotten so much as a tingle from the 80s-90s stuff.

Then there's the 1978 debut 45, "Never Been in a Riot". It is a masterpiece of simple, scattered, clattertrap rock and roll. Right up there with the Desperate Bicycles and their ilk for sheer DIY mastery. I'll cop to only owing this song via mp3, and I've never even heard the two B-sides. Anyone know where I can find them, outside of paying $100 for the original 45?

Play The Mekons, "Never Been in a Riot"


Download THE MEKONS - "Never Been in a Riot" (A-side of 1978 EP)

DEMENTED ARE GO – MORTY SHANN & THE MORTICIANS

(This is a re-post from 2007)

I’m not the only person to have posted these tracks in the quote-unquote blogosphere, but I’ve lived in perpetual terror for too long thinking that there might be some of you who’ve yet to hear them – so here it is, MORTY SHANN AND THE MORTICIANS. As I understand it, these two guttural howls from 1960 remained unissued and unloved until Norton Records set fit to put them on a 45 a few years ago, and then later comped them on the “KICKSVILLE VOLUME 2” rockabilly acetate collection. I was floored the first time I heard them. Think screaming HASIL ADKINS-style hoot, mixed with raunchy throat culture vocals a la THE TRASHMEN (an inspiration? When did “Surfin’ Bird’ come out? Wow – the always-reliable Wikipedia says 1963), and then muddle up the fidelity real real good until you’ve got an absolute Top 10 contender for the Primitive Shit Rock hall of fame. Plus the songs just scoot, too. I wouldn’t call it rockabilly at all – it exists in an almost otherworldly place of its own, and if it’s really from 1960, as Norton says it is – holy crap.

Here’s what I wrote about this record (the 45) a couple years ago:

Made reference to these guys a few posts ago and got an email saying, "who??". Well. MORTY SHANN & THE MORTICIANS were unknown to history until Norton found their unissued 1960 recordings of these two songs and quietly set them loose along with all the other sleeveless 45s they pushed out a few years back. I sort of picked this one out of a catalog on a whim and was just floored when I heard it. Primitive Shit Music? Puh-leeze. This is so raunchy and bug-eyed insane it puts even the TRASHMEN to shame. Morty is a frog-voiced, gravel-throated belter and his band plays off-the-rails, poorly-tuned madman's rock that's completely frantic and pulse-quickening. Before your breath can be caught and your nerves steadied, each 90-second retarded wonder is over in a big unexpected flame-out or quick fade. Fans of BUNKER HILL, THE PINETOPPERS and the fastest of the early lo-fi rockabilly pioneers will be very pleased, but this really ain't rockabilly, nor R&B -- just pure white frat trash. It'd be real nice to know who these guys were and where the hell they came from & if they ever tried to inflict this sound on a paying audience.

Play Morty Shann & The Morticians, "Movin' In"

Download MORTY SHANN & THE MORTICIANS – “Movin’ In”

Download MORTY SHANN & THE MORTICIANS – “Red Headed Woman”

ROCKABILLY FIREBREATHING FROM FIREWORKS

(This is a re-post from a couple years ago)

Circa 1991-94, no rock and roll label could touch In The Red Records. Most still can’t. I remember tearing up packages that would arrive in the mail from them, breaking nails & bloodying fingertips, all to hear the latest & best garage-inspired rock released in decades – during an era when the “form”, such as it was, was in a decided renaissance. At the time, outside of THE GORIES and the CHEATER SLICKS, my favorite In The Red platter was this 45 from Dallas, Texas’ FIREWORKS. Consisting of two obscuro rockabilly covers, the double A-side “Untrue” / “She’s a Tornado” are such wild paintpeelers you can hear the steam pouring out of the back of the amps. Full of reverb, distortion and great whooping, yelping vocals, it begs the question, “who were Fireworks, and why do I love ‘em so much?”. Glad you asked.

Darren Linwood, well, he seemed to be the main honcho behind this crew, and though I know he went onto ’68 Comeback and Mick Collins’ Blacktop (and had been in Dig Dat Hole too!), I kind of lost track of him. James Arthur, he of the mighty stun-guitar on this 45, now helps run Hook Or Crook records with el jefe Chris Owen, and went from Fireworks to killer combos like A Feast of Snakes and the Golden Boys as well. In any case, there were about 3-4 great Fireworks singles, none better then this firebreather on In The Red. Enjoy it here and let me know what you think.

Play Fireworks, "She's a Tornado"


Download FIREWORKS – “She’s A Tornado” (A-side of 1993 In The Red 45)
Download FIREWORKS – “Untrue” (other A-side of 1993 In The Red 45)