THE FLOWERS – SCOTLAND’S LOST DAUGHTERS

Getting any information on these 1979 recordings from THE FLOWERS, part of the vaunted “Earcom 1” compilation of UK stumble-and-crash DIY bands, has proven to be difficult. What I’ve managed to find through a number of complex search term combinations is that the band were Scottish, were fronted by a woman named Hillary Morrison, and that these two tracks were their only recordings for the Fast Product label. Later that label mutated into one called Pop Aural, and THE FLOWERS put out two 45s on that label in the year to follow. One web denizen compared them to Siouxsie and the Banshees. Others have called them “great”. Some have bemoaned the difficulty of finding their recordings. Me, I’m going to try and help right those wrongs by letting you in on their two excellent jagged tracks from “Earcom 1” (PS – you may remember that we posted THE PRATS’ tracks from this same EP right here). “After Dark”, in particular, is a thrilling thump of a song, very much in that slightly danceable but highly aggro style popularized in the UK around the same time by the DELTA 5 and the AU PAIRS, and it and its counterpart “Criminal Waste” has the shambling amateurism of fellow Scots THE MO-DETTES as well. Great stuff, and yours to enjoy.

Play or Download THE FLOWERS – “After Dark”
Play or Download THE FLOWERS – “Criminal Waste”

THE MONKEYWRENCH & THE BEST COVER OF THE 21ST CENTURY

To my way of thinking, bands that cover songs penned by other bands typically fail at about a 9-out-of-10 ratio. Having been in several far-worse-than-mediocre bands myself at certain points, I can attest (as can anyone in a band) that playing a cover song is not only the easy way out, most of the time it’s also 100 times more fun than struggling to come up with your own material & lyrics. Actually listening to covers, though, particularly when you’re well-acquainted with the original, is often excruciating. So imagine my surprise when I got the new MONKEYWRENCH CD in the mail and saw that track #2, was (gasp) “Pray ‘Til You Sweat”!! The FLESH EATERS’ “Pray ‘Til You Sweat”, that is – likely the best song on my favorite album of all time. The surprise wasn’t that they’d covered it – I knew that Mark Arm was a big Flesh Eaters fan, and in fact we’ve bonded in person about the band – but that they TOTALLY pulled it off. I’m especially impressed that no attempt was made to recreate Chris D.’s unparalleled vocal histrionics, and instead the band play a more “subdued”, twangy version of the song that totally smokes in every way. I think it might be the best cover performed ever. Or at least this century (for a list of my other favorite covers, click here). Oh, and the new MONKEYWRENCH CD “Gabriel’s Horn” is quite tasty beyond the cover song as well – as you knew it would be. Recorded in 2002, and just out now on the Birdman label, it’s distorted, dirty, psych blues that arrives halfway between 80’s Seattle and 60s Texas. I’m posting an original from it as well.

Play or Download THE MONKEYWRENCH – “Pray Til You Sweat”
Play or Download THE MONKEYWRENCH – “That’s What You Get”

ON METALWORK & GEAR-GRINDING WITH THE 2x4’S

THE 2X4’S (or, if you prefer, the TWO BY FOURS) first came to my attention via the first HOMEWORK compilations on the Hyped2Death label – the pseudo-illegitimate ones, the ones made on CD-R before the operation was turned into something slightly more on the level. (To be fair, the label, to my way of thinking, has always been on the level and run with the utmost of respect for the artist). The band were instantly my favorite new discovery along with the TRUE BELIEVERS, and the tracks they put on there, “Little Cities” (the B-side of their one and only 1980 single) and “On The Iron Line” (an unreleased track), are fantastic. Written in a herky-jerk, moderately robotic, monotonic style, the band’s songs both musically and lyrically reflect the decline of the Industrial age.

JOHN HOVORKA, the band’s vocalist, guitarist & leader, apparently was a great admirer and employee of the mills and lathe shops of the Northeast, and even made frequent trips to Rust Belt cities to observe his passion more closely. His band played about one step away from “new wave” (or “modern music”, as we sometime called it back then), enough that modern-day discriminating punks & DIY fans love the band, yet hewed close enough to some of its conventions that their only 45, “Bridgeport Lathe/Little Cities”, picked up a ton of Boston-area airplay at the time.

I’m going to post the 45 for you here, along with that bonus track. There’s now a full unreleased 2X4’S album from 1980 available on Hovorka’s web site, which you can buy here. I just bought mine. Keep in mind that “Bridgeport Lathe” is kind of a “funny” song that might have driven me mad if I hadn’t heard the other tracks first – so maybe start with the other ones when you do your playback. OK?

Play or Download THE 2X4’S – “Bridgeport Lathe” (A-side of 1980 45)
Play or Download THE 2X4’S – “Little Cities” (B-side of 1980 45)

Bonus Track – THE 2X4’S – “On The Iron Line”

DISTORTED LEVELS “HEY MISTER/RED SWIRLS” 45

I get the sense that in 1978 there were only a handful of punks who truly took IGGY & THE STOOGES seriously, to the point of learning their lessons and applying them appropriately. The Stooges might have been name-checked a bunch, but I don’t think there was a real post-breakup Stooges groundswell going (and the sort of popular recognition they deserved) until the mid-80s, when Australian bands and US garage punk bands began covering them & playing like them in an ape-like fashion. One band that will never be accused of passing on a chance to do tribute, however, were Rochester, NY’s DISTORTED LEVELS in 1978. Their sole 45, “Hey Mister/Red Swirls” is one of the all-time ludicrous rock classics, so insanely over the top that it’s at least ½ comedy. I guess it all depends on how you look at things. On one level this is the bottom of gutter-scraping primitive shit rock, and I certainly say “bottom” in the best sense of the word. All screams, grunts, overloaded socket-squealing guitar, and the like – somewhere between “Raw Power” and ½ JAPANESE’s “Half Gentlemen Not Beasts”. On another level, it’s almost poseur-ish in its intentional amateurism, yet I’d probably have to dismiss that claim outta hand with the “1978” trump card alone. In 1978, with thousands of kids picking up guitars and drumsticks for the first time, we hasn’t really yet graduated to “ironic, intentionally amateur” stabs of rock and roll. Anyway, this single totally rules – and now it’s yours.

Play or Download DISTORTED LEVELS – “Hey Mister” (A-side)
Play or Download DISTORTED LEVELS – “Red Swirls” (B-side)

INFANTS "GIANT GIRL IN 5TH GRADE"

This 1979 track from legendary Texas punk compilation "ARE WE TOO LATE FOR THE TREND?" has gotta be in someone's - maybe my - Top 100 punk songs of all time. I'm concerned that perhaps it hasn't reached as many ears as it should have, and thus I'm posting it for you today. Many of the Mach One Texas punk bands that get rounds of applause don't do it for me at all - Nervebreakers, Bobby Soxx, Bodysnatchers et al - I'm more partial to The Vamps, Huns, AK-47 and these guys, THE INFANTS, a one-song band who'd mastered the art of the raw-ass hook, and could therefore retire batting 1.000.

Play or Download THE INFANTS - "Giant Girl In The 5th Grade"

45 GRAVE’S RIPPING DEBUT SINGLE

There was a time when I declared the first 45 GRAVE record, 1981’s “Black Cross/Wax”, to be punk’s finest single to date. Granted, I was 18 years old at the time, and hadn’t yet heard Pere Ubu, The Pagans, The Bags nor most of the rest of the canon. I had a bit of “the goth” in me, despite appearances, and thought this one was about as ripping as ripping could be. 27 years after its release (!), I’m still pretty favorably disposed to it. Here’s a summation I wrote previously about this record and the posthumous LP “Autopsy” in 2005:

There was a brief period in my life, quite early in my punk fandom, when I declared to the world that the greatest 45 in the history of punk rock was this band's "Black Cross / Wax". I once stumbled onto college radio three sheets to the wind and pronounced it so, and proceeded to emit a ghoulish, gurgling on-mic scream along with Dinah Cancer during "Black Cross"'s crucial break. Only after years of ridicule and subsequent therapy can I make my fragile peace with that godforsaken evening. I bring this up because I've seen very few fans hold this band up for much of anything in the intervening years, except as one of many cool early 80s bands trolling for gigs in Los Angeles during a period in which there were plenty. Goths haven't really fully embraced them, least not last time I checked, given 45 GRAVE's -- or at least this album's -- fast, screeching, near-hardcore tempos. These tempos and the sheer power & speed of the delivery on this fine record mitigate a whole host of problems, not the least of which is the lyrics and all the bat/cave/crucifix/coffin tomfoolery they were peddling.

When "Autopsy" came out posthumously in 1987, a lot of us were truly floored, because outside of "Black Cross" we'd never heard 45 Grave play so fast. They'd made their mark up to that time with an awful dirgy metal tune called "Party Time" that was on the "Return of the Living Dead" soundtrack, a film soundtrack notable to me in high school because, like "Repo Man", it had PUNK on it!!! But "Party Time" blew, as did the majority of the band's only official LP, "Sleep In Safety". What I didn't know until In The Red put out that fantastic CONSUMERS LP was that the early 45 Grave were a direct outgrowth of that blazing Phoenix punk band's 1977 recordings, and that the "Autopsy" recordings were 45 Grave at their very earliest, ripping it up in fine full-fidelity style like THE MISFITS and THE BAGS. Since they featured not only Paul Cutler from The Consumers but Don Bolles from The Germs & Rob Ritter from The Bags, the tear-it-up pedigree was highly refined & practiced in the legend-making punk rock dark arts. And Cutler was bold enough to swipe most of his best songs from The Consumers, and then re-record them with a female singer & his hot new band = 45 Grave.

Granted, the horror BS was/is a little much, but like The Misfits, it was a gimmick that could mostly be shunted aside if you pretended you'd recently had a partial lobotomy. Only "Dinah Cancer"'s banshee vocals and some select atrocious lyrics still make my skin crawl, now that I've mentally removed my frontal lobes. This collection nets you that wild-ass "Black Cross" 45, certainly one of the top 197 punk 45s of all time, a large batch of 90-second howlers, the novelty "Monster Mash"-like "Riboflavin Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood" and even an early "Partytime" that almost doesn't suck. I wasn't even sure this even made it out to CD until I read here that it's one of the rarest CDs going, selling on eBay for $268. Now how do you figure that? I busted the LP out last week and gave it a full-bosom nostalgia listen, and I can say that the center still held. Check your local auction listings and keep that wallet stuffed!

In the meantime, here’s that first 45 in all of its blood-curdling glory.

Play or Download 45 GRAVE – “Black Cross” (A-side)
Play or Download 45 GRAVE – “Wax” (B-side)

MONSTER MAGNET - WELL WE LIKED 'EM AT THE TIME

I'm going to tell you something - but just you, OK? I was part of that early group of luddites that resisted CD players because we'd totally cast our lot with vinyl - and as long as there were no CDs coming out that weren't on vinyl, that's how things were gonna be. I was certain around 1990 and 1991 I was going to be playing records, and records only, for at least another 10 years. There was this problem, though. This killer noise/psych/spacerock band called MONSTER MAGNET had a new record out, their first album, and it was only on CD. It did have this godawful cover art, but then again, these were the guys who were playing weirdo, fuzzed-out sonic destructo rock better than anyone, at least on their first two singles (all I'd heard to that point - so how could I have known??). I bought the CD player. Then I bought that first CD of mine - my first CD ever. I sold said CD back to a proper "record" store within a week, because of course, if you've ever heard anything from MONSTER MAGNET outside of those first two 45s, it's a load of meathead bong-hit metal crap.

This 45, though - it came out in '89 on a cool (and very briefly-lived) label called Circuit, and it blew me away when I first heard it. Only MUDHONEY, at the time, had tapped the inner fuzz-vein so well, and I thought these guys were the tits. You'll undoubtedly see why when you download the entire 45 from me right here.

Play or Download MONSTER MAGNET - "Lizard Johnny" (A-side)
Play or Download MONSTER MAGNET - "Freak Shop USA" (B-side)

DON'T MISBEHAVE IN THE NEW AGE

There are few moments that compare to hearing a song from your misbegotten youth again after twenty years - well come to think of it, there are plenty of moments that beat it hands down, but I know I was pretty excited to hear this track again seven years ago after not hearing it since I was a wee small man of 15. ANIMALS & MEN's "Don't Misbehave In The New Age" is a lost, recently recovered slice of ramshackle, garagy UK DIY chug from 1980 with a scoop of "the new wave" on top. I totally dug this song for years when it would get played on college radio, and yet I never got the name of the band in the back-announce. I got Siouxsie, I got Bauhaus, I got Simple Minds - but Animals & Men I totally missed. Totally forgot about it, too, until it came out on an early "MESSTHETICS" compilation at the dawn of this century. Here's something I wrote about the band earlier. And right below you is their proverbial coup de grace.

Play or Download ANIMALS & MEN - "Don't Misbehave In The New Age" (from 1980 45)

WHAT’S HOT & WHAT’S NOT ON THE ‘TWANG

One of the benefits of using “Box.net” as the hosting provider for the mp3s I post here is I get to see numbers on what all y’all are downloading. A few clear winners have emerged in the year-plus since I started putting up songs for the taking. The winner, by a figurative mile, was that first Bangs/Bangles single we gave to you back in September. Those CHURCH MICE tracks rang some bells as well. Others were not so lucky – I shall refrain from posting their numbers, but fellow CURSE OF THE BIRTHMARK fans, we need to work a little harder to get the word out – apparently posting an entire EP for free isn’t sufficient to rally the base. Here, just for kicks, are the Top 20 most downloaded songs on Detailed Twang:

1. THE BANGS – Getting Out Of Hand (910 downloads)
2. CHURCH MICE – College Psychology On Love (802)
3. THE BANGS – Call On Me (696)
4. VIRGIN PRUNES – Twenty Tens (I’ve Been Smoking All Night Long) (661)
5. CHURCH MICE – Babe, We Are Not Part Of Society (643)
6. PUSSY CAT – Les Temps Ont Change (525)
7. THE TWILIGHTERS – Nothing Can Bring Me Down (522)
7. BO-WEEVILS – That Girl (522)
9. THE WEASELS – Beat Her With A Rake (500)
10. CONTINENTAL CO-ETS – I Don’t Love You No More (481)
10. THE BANGS – Getting Out Of Hand (demo) (481)
12. FABIENNE DELSOL – Vilainis Filles Mauvais Garcons (474)
13. ART PHAG – A Boy and His Gun (470)
14. RED CROSS – Every Day There’s Someone New (demo) (468)
15. MAJORETTES – White Levis (434)
16. DWARVES – Lick It (430)
17. WHITE PRIDE – Illegal Aliens (425)
18. MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS – Mama Was A Schitzo…. (419)
19. GIBSON BROS – My Young Life (404)
20. REX GARVIN – Emulsified (401)
20. GIRLS AT OUR BEST – Getting Nowhere Fast (401)

STATE OF THE KIDS, 2008 – PART 2

It’s probably not fair to get you all hopped up on the wild young stallions of 2008 rock-n-roll, and then post a mere five tracks, as I did last Friday – right? Well here’s another five more. NOTHING PEOPLE from Northern California are arguably one of the two or three best bands going right now – an awesome, big, gnarly sound made from smashed metal, spacesuits and old Roxy Music records. This one’s a doozy about plastic surgery. BLACK SUNDAY are one of many bands from Memphis, TN’s Alicja Trout; I know little more than that, and this 2007 45 was the first thing I heard from them. On the basis of the first 20 seconds of this one, I’ve pronounced myself a fan for life. PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT hail from Columbus, Ohio, and have been kicking up a tremendous low-fidelity racket for well nigh over a year now; this is from their new-ish LP on Siltbreeze. TYVEK have this crazy, mixed-up way of making 2008 in Detroit sound like 1980 in England, while staying far enough away from “Messthetics pandering” to be their own joyous & unique thing; I saw them live last year and they were frantic and buzzing from the word go. “Still Sleep” reminds one of The Fall’s “Frightened” a bit, does it not? Finally, LITTLE CLAW (pictured) also used to hail from Detroit but chose to relocate to Portland, presumably for the microbreweries. They arrive squarely at the intersection of raw noise and throbbing garage, and appeal greatly to lovers of both (like me). Go forth and prosper with these MPEG Audio Layer 3s, courtesy of your friends at Detailed Twang!

Play or Download NOTHING PEOPLE – “Army Of Ideal” (from Hozac Records 45)
Play or Download BLACK SUNDAY – “Gli Amanti D'Oltretomba” (from Solid Sex Lovie Doll records 45)
Play or Download PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT – “These Days” (from “Magic Flowers Droned” LP)
Play or Download TYVEK – “Still Sleep” (from What’s your Rupture Records 45)
Play or Download LITTLE CLAW – “Movies For You” (from “Spit & Squalor Swallow The Snow” LP)

STATE OF THE KIDS, 2008

I try to preach the gospel of “if you think great music isn’t being made today, you’re not paying attention” as much as I can, but until you’re provided with proof, how could you believe me? It’s fairly easy to get caught pining for 1978, or 1981, or 1993, or 1966 – remembering, of course, that there will be a generation who not too long from now will be pining for the rock music made in 2008. I may be one of them myself. With the quick discovery tools made possible by the internet, it’s really not a big stretch to keep up with The State of The Kids in 2008. I’m posting five songs here that I totally dig, all of which were released in the past six months. These 5 (including Sic Alps, pictured here) are from some of the world’s finest bands right now – others that are musts to check out include The Nothing People; Tyvek; His Electro Blue Voice; Bad Trips; Miss Alex White & The Red Orchestra; Spider; Cheveu; Black Sunday; Psychedelic Horseshit; Little Claw; Fabienne DelSol; and The Magnetix. Perhaps there are more! Until we figure it out, please enjoy this smattering of young people’s music, circa 2008.

Play or Download SIC ALPS – “Message From The Law” (from “Description of the Harbor” EP)
Play or Download THOMAS FUNCTION – “Relentless Machines” (from 45)
Play or Download TIMES NEW VIKING – “Allergy” (from “(My Head)” 7”EP)
Play or Download SONIC CHICKEN 4 – “Sexiest” (from “Sonic Chicken 4” CD)
Play or Download KING KHAN & BBQ – “Teabag Party” (from 7”EP)

SCREAMIN' JOE NEAL - THE ROCK & ROLL DEACON

A cursory search of the world wide internet gives me very little about SCREAMIN' JOE NEAL, a man with the most possessed set of pipes this side of Bunker Hill & Little Richard (to say nothing of that CADILLACS track we posted a few weeks ago). I bought this 45 about six-seven years ago out of the Norton Records catalog - that label was on such a winning streak for a while, unearthing wild 50s obscurities with such regularity that, for me, it was a matter of just handing over the credit card # every time a new one popped out. When the winning streak fizzled with some middling rockabilly or yuk-fest novelty crap, I stopped. But man, SCREAMIN' JOE NEAL! This came out in 1956 on Emerge Records, a St. Louis-based local label. Neal put out one other 45, which you can also hear on "his", uh, My Space page. This one is the real barnburner, though, and you can play it or download it by clicking the links below.

Play or Download SCREAMIN' JOE NEAL - "Rock and Roll Deacon"

Play or Download SCREAMIN' JOE NEAL - "Tell Me Pretty Baby"

4 GREAT PUNK LYRICS SEARED INTO MY BRAIN UNTIL DEATH

1. "He tried to stand up to Fidel / But nearly got us blown to Hell / Said he'd get us to the moon / But spent all his time chasing poon!" - THE HUNS, "Glad He's Dead"

2. "Now I guess I'll have to tell 'em / That I've got no cerebellum" - THE RAMONES, "Teenage Lobotomy"

3. "Kill them 'cause their hair's too long / Kill them 'cause their views are wrong" - DEADBEATS, "Kill The Hippies"

4. "Hey Cop! I just shot some crank / I just got out of the tank / I just robbed a bank / I feel pretty rank" - THE NUBS, "Job"

EDDY DETROIT, DESERT SHAMAN

Most folks came to "know" EDDY DETROIT, as much as anyone can know Eddy Detroit, from a 45 the SUN CITY GIRLS put out covering one of his songs ("Immortal Gods"). A Phoenix, Arizona-based contemporary of that band in the 1980s, and whom I believe to be a bit older than them as well, active way back in the 70s, Detroit is the proverbial riddle wrapped in the proverbial enigma. Trouser Press of all folks does a good job capturing the zeitgeist of Eddy Detroit:

"....a self-styled post-punk Rod McKuen who croons his wide-eyed psychobabble-cum-poetry over a lite-psych backing reminiscent of a Holiday Inn lounge band hipped-out for the summer of love...."

He's a bongo-furied, satan-inspired, mystical African hippie punk percussionist who's put out a few records that beg to be pulled out and studied from time to time. The "Immortal Gods" CD, a reissue of a 1982 LP that had the Sun City Girls backing up Detroit, is quite good - better still is the "Mephisto Cigars" 45, with an '82 version of that song (later released in the 1990s on Majora) that totally rules the roost. I'm posting that version for you here. If you want to watch a bizarro video of his "Beezelbub", click here.

Play or Download EDDY DETROIT - "Mephisto Cigars"

RECORDS AND CLOTHES ON THE FLOOR

For about a week my favorite band of 2005 was LOVE IS ALL, a Swedish pop group who use horns and hooks and lots of shouting to (at times) create an irresistible racket. I found mp3s of two of their songs – “Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up” and “Motorboat”, and I thought on the basis on those two that they could do no wrong. Both songs have everything I love in pop music, MY kind of “pop” anyway: brassy, loud swoops of sound; big hooks; nods to the 1960s heyday of hitmaking, and great vocals, even when those vocals are not “classically” great. It’s sort of what unites 60s French ye ye, THE RAMONES, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, some CAMERA OBSCURA and BELLE & SEBASTIAN tracks; the early Bangles stuff and so on.

I bought LOVE IS ALL’s debut CD and found it pretty middling; saw them live and they were fun, and they are currently residing in my personal where-are-they-now file. A quick check of their MySpace site has them still very active, with new songs a-plenty. See what got the buzz started by downloading these two near-perfect songs.

Play or Download LOVE IS ALL – “Make Up, Fall Out, Make Up” (from 2004 7”EP on What’s Your Rupture)
Play or Download LOVE IS ALL – “Motorboat” (from 2005, US-only tour 45 on What’s Your Rupture)

JESUS LOVES THE KENT 3

With every passing year, I become more of a KENT 3 fan, bordering on fanatic. I listen to their final three albums (“Stories of the New West”, “Peasant Musik” and especially “Spells”) every six months or so, and though I can’t say this about a lot of bands, with the KENT 3, I like to crank it. You know what I mean? Like windows rattling in the car? The mystery of these guys, is outside of a few nods to bands like Wire and The Fall (more imagined than real), they really were just a basic, vanilla, true-blue “rock band” at heart, albeit of the garage-rocking flavor. I saw them live a bunch around 1997-99, as they were at that time, to my ears, Seattle’s best band. I tried to capture the general je ne sais quoi of the band in this post on my old blog Agony Shorthand, which I’ll copy-n-paste here:

“….During my two years of residence in the rainy city (Seattle), the Kent 3 were one of the only local bands outside of DEAD MOON & MUDHONEY I’d regularly venture out to see. I think I caught them on at least a half-dozen occasions, and every last one was a great time. What does one call the style of rock they play? Garage? I guess….but the likelihood of their having any supporters amongst what we commonly think of as Crypt- or even Estrus-style “garage rockers” is pretty nonexistent. How about ROCK? Sure! Make that raw, occasionally straight-ahead rock seasoned with the weirdest, most obtuse sense of humor and lyrical wordplay you can imagine. These gentlemen are by no means dumb – there’s a sneaking suspicion I have, borne out in their lyrics and even in the twisting but riff-heavy music, that the Kent 3 are playing at a stratified plain just above the one most mortals occupy, and that they are so stifled and frustrated that they throw caution to the wind & just say “fuck it” when it comes time to compose a coherent lyrical or musical narrative. In fact part of the fun of listening to them is trying to figure out where Viv Halogen’s lyrical and philosophical thought train will take you in a song. It’s not meant to be “funny” per se (though it often is anyway), just “interesting”. And I hate lyrics!

This latest one (“Spells”) came out in 2002, a good four years after the excellent “Peasant Musik” emerged on Steve Turner (Mudhoney)’s SuperElectro label. I don’t know how I missed it, but then these guys are used to coping with a fairly low profile. Not even sure if they’re around anymore, really. I’d like to know. “Spells” definitely eschews some of the more mid-tempo meanderings of its predecessor for a lot more fired-up aggression, but even that is tempered by titles like “Man In a Woman’s Body” that sort of act as quiet, puzzling interludes for the rest. Halogen has a terrific voice, which is kind of curious when you consider that an incarnation of this band from a decade ago (“Screaming Youth Fantastic” ) practically fell down solely on their then-vocalist’s rotten set of pipes. I have to live with “Spells” some more, but from where I sit today, it’s their most consistent long player to date, Maybe their best. Yet if people truly vote with their wallets, then this is not a very well-appreciated band. You’ll have to factor that against my glowing appraisal and see if it’s worth parting with your dollar when you come across “Spells” in the used CD bins…..”

Since I recently went through a big dose of Kent 3 mania, I figured I’d let you in on the secret and post two songs each from those final three records. Seriously, they're still out there, in used bins everywhere, when they should be safe, warm & at home on your hi-fi. Take a listen and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.

Play or Download THE KENT 3 - “The Palms” (from 2002 “Spells” CD)
Play or Download THE KENT 3 – “The Changeling” (from 2002 “Spells” CD)
Play or Download THE KENT 3 – “Satellite” (from 1997 “Stories of the New West” CD)
Play or Download THE KENT 3 - “11th Street Wipeout” (from 1997 “Stories of the New West” CD)
Play or Download THE KENT 3 - “DJ Knew?” (from 1998 “Peasant Musik” CD)
Play or Download THE KENT 3 – “Well Dressed Man” (from 1998 “Peasant Musik” CD)

HAVE YOU HEARD THE TFUL282?

There are a handful of bands from my live rock heyday of roughly 1986-1995 that I saw play live over fifteen times each, as obsessive as that sounds, and is. CLAW HAMMER are easily #1, pushing at least 40+ shows, but then again I went on tour with them, and they were friends to boot. MUDHONEY – at least 25 shows, partly driven by their longevity, and partly by the fact that I lived in Seattle a few years & wormed my way onto a few pest lists. LAZY COWGIRLS – absolute crazed late 80s mania for these guys. If they played in Los Angeles, where they lived and played live every month during 1986-89, I was there. I missed one show in the desert and one in Long Beach that I know of, and I’m pretty sure that’s about it. Sick! THE ICKY BOYFRIENDS and MONOSHOCK – between one and three dozen times respectively, but then again, those fellas were also friends, in addition to being a blast live.

There is one band in the 15+ club whom I’m never really met, broken bread with, nor followed too obsessively, and yet whom I delightedly saw play live somewhere between 20 and 25 times. I’m talking of course of THE THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282. “The Fellers” need to have a reeducation campaign conducted around them, lest they be forgotten to time. In their day they were such a goddamn powerhouse – a wacked amalgamation of convoluted BEEFHEART riffs, Krautrock propulsion, raging punk rock-styled banjo & mandolin, and a noisy and strange take on then-current independent rock flavors. Some of their live shows, especially around 1991 or so, are among the jaw-dropping best I’ve ever seen. Their San Francisco Bay Area-based fans devotedly hopped from gig to gig, and for a year or two it was absolutely worship-like at the shows themselves, with lots of drunken screaming, rolling in the aisles (or in the “pit”), good-natured heckling, and general speaking in tongues. Their core early contingent was largely made up of friends of theirs in bands whose names repeatedly got dropped in BANANAFISH fanzine, which was at the time the ultimate inside “noise” joke, a perplexing, maddening and yet somehow compelling read that centered around editor Seymour Glass’s noisy and offbeat musical favorites, as well as on iconoclastic weirdos of all stripes. Then there were dorks like me who just sorta showed up and witnessed every single show, because it was the best entertainment option available that night, which it most certainly always was.

Now the 22-year-old me had a slightly less robust BS detector than the 40-year-old me does, and I’ll admit that the band’s recordings don’t hold up that well, except for the great “Mother Of All Saints” 2xLP and a few tracks from each album and 45. The Thinking Fellers had this ridiculous, “look at us, we’re really, really weird” show-off thing going on that even bugged me back then (exhibit A: their dumb band name), with some of the guys in the band wearing dresses at times, and actual recordings that consisted solely of farts. Not that I’m not one, mind you – but the Thinking Fellers were TOTAL NERDS. They were nerds that also made some of the most joyously twisted, scraping and fun music of their day, and I’ve picked a couple of representative tracks – their “hits”, if you will – to illustrate this point. Sorry, no YouTube videos of the band live at the 6th Street Rendezvous in 1990 appear to be available (yet)!

Play or Download THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 – “Sister Hell” (from 1989 LP, “Tangle”)
Play or Download THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 – “2x4s” (from 1990 Nuf Sed 45)

THE DAWN OF SCORCHED EARTH POLICY

In the early 1990s I was very taken, as some of us were, by the New Zealand cassette label Xpressway. The label was putting out tapes & the odd record by Velvets-inspired (however loosely) bands like THE TERMINALS and THE DEAD C, and most of the time when they spoke, I listened. They put out this archival tape from an early 80s NZ group called SCORCHED EARTH POLICY that I totally fell for called "Foaming Out". It collected their two limited-press 12"EPs on Flying Nun from 1984 and 1985 respectively, and then added on a side of nth-generation live recordings. I guess I thought at the time that the band actually never had any official recordings, and that they were just a great lost band in The Clean mode - static pop drone on ocassion; bouyant, choppy melodics on others. Eventually I got wise, and learned that a couple of these folks, Peter Stapleton & Brian Crook, were movers and shakers behind a variety of quality New Zealand groups such as the aforementioned TERMINALS and THE RENDERERS, and that S.E.P. were just another fnatastic stop on their resumes - perhaps my favorite. See if you agree with these first two tracks from their debut EP from '84, "Dust To Dust".

Play or Download SCORCHED EARTH POLICY - "Green Cigar"
Play or Download SCORCHED EARTH POLICY - "Too Far Gone"

SUPERDOPE BACK ISSUES

Through the first eight years of the 1990s, I published a print fanzine called SUPERDOPE, devoted 99.9% to the music of my twenties. Typically it was slanted toward garage punk, strange noise/DIY records and a little indie rock (to be perfectly frank). Writers beyond myself included Tom Lax, Grady Runyan, Doug Pearson, Tim Ellison & Jon Behar. I’ve received a couple of inquiries lately on these, so I went into the garage to see what I had left. I’d be happy to sell you my remaining copies if you’re interested – I take Paypal at jayhinman@hotmail dot.com, or if you want to send cash, just let me know and I’ll float you our mailing address.

SUPERDOPE #8 -- A digest-sized issue from 1998 with a very long, multi-page article called "FORTY-FIVE 45s THAT MOVED HEAVEN & EARTH", featuring my summations & opinions of what I considered the best 7" records of all time. Featured bands include PERE UBU, THE CRAMPS, MC5, ELECTRIC EELS, GERMS, BAGS, FLESH EATERS, PAGANS and more. There are also a large handful of reviews of records of the day. I'll let this go for $4 US, $5 US to Canada and $7 US to the rest of the world.

SUPERDOPE #6 – Last two copies just sold - THANKS!

SUPERDOPE #5 -- Another large issue from 1992, this one with interviews with the NIGHT KINGS, THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS and FLY ASHTRAY. Dozens and dozens and dozens of reviews and lots of alcohol talk. $6 US, $7 to Canada and $8 US to the rest of the world.

HOLY SMOKE BABY!

This 1958 barnburner came out as the A-side of a 45 in a long, looong string of 45s by THE CADILLACS, one of the more celebrated doo-wop/early R&B groups. What little I know about them and have heard from them hasn’t, to date, impressed me all that much – particularly when matched against this total screamer, which complements anything from LITTLE RICHARD, BUNKER HILL, SCREAMIN’ JOE NEAL and THE PINETOPPERS quite nicely. It’s available on a couple of Cadillacs comps out there, and I found mine on an old “Savage Kick” or “Desperate Rock And Roll” LP, I forget which now that I’ve sold it off. Here it is in its digitized glory – go to it!

Play or Download THE CADILLACS – “Holy Smoke Baby”

MESSTHETICS #104 - SOUTH WALES

It's 2008 and a new batch of MESSTHETICS material is hitting the shelves. I couldn't be more pleased with the first one I've tackled, MESSTHETICS #104 - a collection of simple & sparse rock clatter from South Wales, circa 1977-81. I have this fixed image in my head of music from Wales being written & sung in their impenetrable native tongue, full of double-L’s and Gs. This likely stems from the first Welsh punk rock I ever heard, a track from LLYGOD FYRNING called “N.C.B.” on the first “Killed By Death”-esque comp I bought circa 1988, “Year Of The Rats”. Well how about this – turns out YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS were from Wales. That one guy JOHN CALE too.

In any event, MESSTHETICS #104 collects a large handful of lost 45s and compilation tracks from the southern part of the territory, and it’s certainly the digital debut for just about every last one of ‘em. I myself had heard of exactly two of the groups on here, THE JANET & JOHNS and the PURITAN GUITARS, the latter solely because of their appearance in an earlier “Messthetics” compilation. As always with this series, the results are stellar. This overview of the Welsh scene – and the liners definitely make it clear that it was a “scene” in the Maximum Rock-n-Roll sense of the word – glorifies the homemade, up-by-your-bootstraps approach to musicmaking that swept (often by necessity) the British Isles just after punk. Art students, adventurous punks, angry ex-hippies and experimental weirdos came together to form short-lived duos, trios and combos, often for one track or one 45. Often they struck total gold while barely trying. I am particularly taken by the opening tracks on this compilation by THE CZECHS, who were given exactly four minutes of space on a compilation record, and came up with the brilliant scattershot staccato punk of “Suffocation” in just over three. With 44 seconds to work with, they tacked on a strange space-filler called “44 Seconds”, just so they’d use up their full allotment (“you guys said”). The liners say they insisted they be re-released together, as god and nature intended.

HUGH VOLK, THE JANET & JOHNS and the PURITAN GUITARS also contribute wonderful aural bounties. I’m posting the latter’s “Making It” because it’s so representative of what I love about this era of musicmaking in England – dutuned, strangely out-of-focus, bass-heavy travel through space and time, and still “rocking” through and through. Run, don’t walk to pick up MESSTHETICS #104 – and check out a couple of its heavyweights right here.

Play or Download THE CZECHS - "Suffocation" + "44 Seconds"
Play or Download PURITAN GUITARS - "Making It"

DETAILED TWANG’S BEST OF 2007

Ooooh it was just so hard to be out of commission for a couple months and not be able to rank-order the best music I heard this year! So here, in late late January, are the “records of the year”, some of which weren’t even records. I’m refraining from any commentary on these out of consideration for your time.....I’m also not trying to go to 10 on each of these, as, to be honest, I didn’t hear every record/CD made during the year. As so often happens, sometimes my favorite records during any given year are heard way after the fact. If you can help speed along this process by letting me know what I missed in the comments section, that’d be righteous.

ALBUMS

1. TIMES NEW VIKING – “Presents The Paisley Reich”
2. MARISSA NADLER – “Songs III – Bird On The Water”
3. TYVEK – “Fast Metabolism”
4. FABIENNE DELSOL – “Between You & Me”
5. THE BAD TRIPS – “The Bad Trips”
6. THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS – “The Cherry Blossoms”
7. LITTLE CLAW - "Spit & Squalor Swallow The Snow"
8. BLACK LIPS – “Good Bad Not Evil”
9. MISS ALEX WHITE & THE RED ORCHESTRA – “Space & Time”
10. CORTNEY TIDWELL – “Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up”

SINGLES

1. SPIDER – “Witch Cookie / Charlie”
2. NOTHING PEOPLE – “In The City / Really Good Time”
3. MAGNETIX – “Hell On Wheels / Motard”
4. THOMAS FUNCTION – “Relentless Machines/Blasphemer’s Union”
5. CHEVEU – “My Answer Is Yes! / Lola Langusta”
6. THE LAMPS – “Fred Astaire” 7”EP
7. TALBOT TAGORA – 7”EP

REISSUES

1. THE BRISTOLS – “The Best of Fabienne DelSol and The Bristols” CD
2. MESSTHETICS #103 CD
3. THE BETTER BEATLES – “Mercy Beat” LP
4. “SHAKEDOWN – ORIGINAL BRISBANE PUNK 1979-83” CD
5. FIGURES OF LIGHT - "It's Lame / I Jes Wanna Go To Bed" 45
6. VASHTI BUNYAN – “Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind” CD

To see our best of 2006, 2005 and 2004, just click on the years.

THE PINETOPPERS "SHOUT BAMALAMA / FAT GAL"

If it hadn’t been for Tim Warren and the CRYPT label I might never have heard THE PINETOPPERS until the mp3 era, but thanks to an amazing late 80s compilation LP series of 50s/60s rockabilly, early rock & raunch called “SIN ALLEY”, I was introduced to the outright amazing “Shout Bamalama” – one of two songs cut on a single 45 under the PINETOPPERS name. By now the story is far better known that the band was OTIS REDDING’s first “garage band” stop in a career of R&B/soul hitmaking, but it seems to me that the two cuts – “Shout Bamalama” and its flip side, “Fat Gal” – still need to be better-heard than they’ve been to date. I personally think they’re as wild & raw as anything from the 50s up til now, and get a load of Redding’s voice. If you think he was an amazing shouter on his well-known stuff (and he was), listen to him belt out, “I’m goin’ out back to get ten or ‘leven more!” or the way he screams the one-syllable word “I” at the start of “Fat Gal”. Wow! It doesn’t get much more “desperate” than this – fantastic stuff.

Play or Download THE PINETOPPERS – “Shout Bamalama” (A-side)
Play or Download THE PINETOPPERS – “Fat Gal” (B-side)

MEET THE BETTER BEATLES

I was introduced to this band by the form-defining music blog CRUD CRUD several years ago, and I rank his posting of THE BETTER BEATLES’ 1980s single “Penny Lane/I’m Down” as one of my favorite web discoveries ever, a find that almost instantly validated the technology used to “acquire” it. The record itself was so unknown, so forgotten and uncherished – but nearly overnight (overnight meaning about three years) a campaign evolved to unearth this strange, short-lived Omaha band. With the recent release of “Mercy Beat”, an LP containing the 45 and all the other songs from the same session, THE BETTER BEATLES have officially arrived, 28 years later. I was even asked to write the liner notes, which I was happy to do:

Historians, record nerds and armchair musicologists are just now extensively excavating the dark crannies of American do-it-yourself whatsis that emerged from the bloom of punk in the late seventies and early eighties. Some of the treasures found in mildewing crates and from deceased moms’ closets speak volumes about the energy and inventiveness of the USA’s bored youth at the time, giving rise to a sub-subculture that found its calling in twisted, art-infused noise & jagged-edge rock, not in “punk” per se - all original, all cleanly cleaved from the past, and often capturing a strange zeitgeist that popular media reckonings of the era seemed to have missed.

Then there was Omaha, Nebraska’s Better Beatles. They sported no originals – just savagely wacked, detuned, deadpan readings of Beatles material in a manner than no one save The Residents could have imagined in 1980. Sure, bands all over the US and the UK were making oddball 45s out of analog synthesizers, primitive recording techniques and decidedly arty leanings at the time, but few approached the deconstructivist beauty of The Better Beatles’ one and only single, the self-released “Penny Lane/I’m Down”. To hear this glorious single in the 21st century, as an increasing number of partisans have (a number sure to blossom with the release of the disc you’re holding), is to still stand agog that a group could go to such unforced, random-sounding lengths and not come off in the least as some dumb-ass, Dr. Demento-lite yuk band. The Better Beatles single isn’t even “funny”. It’s dark and at times transcendent, and it simultaneously lifts the Beatles’ unparalleled songcraft to new and even better heights, while destroying the mythos around the band just the same, in as snotty & underhanded a manner as the rottenest rotten punk you can conjure.

And to think – there was a whole tape’s worth of weirdo recordings of this ilk just sitting around all this time! You’ll probably be the best judge of whether the Beatles’ legacy can survive these covers intact, because different aural cavities are going to hear these unique sounds in all sorts of funny and ultimately polarizing ways.

Here are two tracks from the album, which you can buy here.

Play or Download THE BETTER BEATLES – “Penny Lane”
Play or Download THE BETTER BEATLES – “Paperback Writer"

GETTING GROOVY WITH THE BANGLES

Hey, did I really say I was going to shut down Detailed Twang? After promising to post this and other gems? Well it’s time to right that wrong – we’re back, and from now on when we need to go off and “find ourselves” we promise to do so without makin’ a big old show of it. So I’m presenting an EP here from the early BANGLES – newly shorn of their former name THE BANGS, newly signed to IRS records, and featuring a wonderful Merseybeat/girl-pop/garage sound that they totally jettisoned after this record. This EP was a big hit on college radio, and I remember it well from my high school days. That I’d still dig it now as much as I did then speaks to its quality, for I went through many musical phases after this one where I either listened solely to punk & garage or to freaked-out psych & proto-punk rarities, strange DIY sounds from the 70s and 80s etc etc. THE BANGLES, in all their purity and naiveté, remain, and I’m proud to spread the good word here and in so doing, herald the sheepish return of Detailed Twang.

Please pay special attention to the scorching cover of 60s New Zealand punkers THE LA-DE-DAS’ “How Is The Air Up There”, and fantastic originals “Mary Street” and “The Real World”. This was, at one time, a fantastic band, and I wish I'd seen 'em circa 1981-83. If you want to hear previous posts from the early band that we put up last year, please click here and here.

Play or Download THE BANGLES – “Real World”
Play or Download THE BANGLES – “I’m In Line”
Play or Download THE BANGLES – “Want You”
Play or Download THE BANGLES – “Mary Street”
Play or Download THE BANGLES – “How Is The Air Up There”