Wednesday, May 06, 2009

THE TYRADES’ RETRO PUNK BOMB

There was this band THE TYRADES who were all the rage on the punk rock bulletin boards and in the all-ages coffee klatches in the first half of the 2000s, remember? Not that I necessarily read the magazine after I turned 21, but this Chicago act were the patron saints of Maximum Rock and Roll magazine and a good percentage of its followers. Putting yourself in their shoes, it’s not hard to imagine why. Rough-and-tumble female singer with a great Penelope Houston sneer? Check. Fast, tight, supercharged riffs? Check. A legion of boutique labels rushing to put out their 45s? Check. The innate ability to rhyme the words “in my veins” and “makin’ me go insane”? Absolutely! They seemed a nice throwback band, sort of late 70s in the songs they wrote, with a lot of the rawness of the early 90s garage punk acts as well.

In my early days prowling around the apparently deceased Soulseek, I noticed that someone had a folder with the complete discography of THE TYRADES, and presently, I commenced to download it. I learned a couple of things – that, no, I was not really a Tyrades fan, but that wow, when they were on, they were as fantastic as everyone was saying they were. There were two tracks that stood out for me – “Detonation”, from a 2001 single on Big Neck records, and “Former Airline”, a just about perfect cover from 2002 of a WIRE song. Let's say these two made up a single 45. That would easily be one of my favorite records of the decade, and in my imaginary world, it still is. I blasted these on the car stereo the other afternoon and remembered that I had a blog from which I share music with the people. So here you go.

Play The Tyrades, “Detonation”




Download THE TYRADES – “Detonation”
Download THE TYRADES – “Former Airline”

4 comments:

luKe said...

Tyrades put on one hell of a great show when they played at the infamous Pit's club over here in Belgium. Killer band all the way!!

Unknown said...

Thanks as always...and Soulseek certainly ain't dead....although in this day and age it seems like just one more option to check as opposed to being the land of plenty it once was. They have an upgrade out and a new server from whence to search...

Chris said...

Love pretty much everything this band put out. I think the band recorded a second LP but broke up before it saw the light of day... any well-connected folks have a copy of these recordings?

Punk Business Manager said...

Although a great band, some of the Tyrades stuff was just so-so to my ears. These two tracks you posted are some of their better ones, but for me their shining moment is the totally bonkers "I Am Homicide" EP on the Shit Sandwich label from 2004. The first two songs on it are just jaw droppers- check it out here:

http://www.kbdrecords.com/2006/06/22/tyrades-i-am-homicide-7/