THE DAY THE WORLD TURNED DAY-GLO: TILLY AND THE WALL'S "O"

So the other day my pal DP totally throws me the unexpected, and not entirely welcome, critical curveball: "What's your pick for album of the year?". Album of the year? How many albums have I heard this year? Could I actually muster up a "Top 10" or even a Top 5? It doesn't take much to fall out of touch with what the kids are doing, just some proactive curmudeonly ignorance, and a general line-in-the-sand intolerance for anything new. Now that I can do really well, and have been for some time - with exceptions (see here, here and here).

I struggled to come up with an answer. Should I play it safe and give him the cool & self-promoting answer, the SIC ALPS' excellent "U.S. EZ" on Siltbreeze? Or the record I actually listened to the most? "By album of the year, what exactly do you mean? Do you really mean something from 2008?". Affirmative. "Do reissues count?". Negatory. "Well, if I told you that my favorite record this year was by a band I've never seen live, who apparently feature a tap dancer who keeps rhythm with her feet in place of a drummer, and who are probably the most overtly commercial indie-rock band I've ever liked in the entire 25+-year history of indie rock, would that still count as my favorite album of the year?". I was assured that it would. I took a deep breath, I gathered my courage, and I let the truth be revealed: "My favorite album of the year is called "O", and it is performed by an Omaha, Nebraska pop band called TILLY AND THE WALL. There, I said it".

The passage of weeks since my brave admission has done nothing to dull my enthusiasm for this CD called "O" by TILLY AND THE WALL. Nay, I totally love this album - even the songs that sound like THE CARS, even the opening ballad, even the ones with obvious tap dancing in lieu of drumming (which is to say: all of them). The band is at once polished, anarchic, loud, sweet, funny, strange and bouyant, and I'd call them a 21st century of the MAMAS & THE PAPAS gone totally day-glo, high-energy and new wave. The main singer channels the ghost of Michelle Phillips in her singing, and she's got a voice to die for. Every song is good-to-great, and I can't get my favorite ones ("Cacophony", "Jumbler", "Blood Flowers") out of my head, even when I impose a week-long moratorium on listening to this thing, just so I can hear other music for a change. I suspect that well over half my regular readers will totally hate it. I bet the ones that can tolerate it will come to know and to love as I have.

There you have it, punkers: album of the year: "O" by TILLY AND THE WALL, bringing the noise from Omaha to your PC.

Play TILLY AND THE WALL - "Cacophony"



Play TILLY AND THE WALL - "Jumbler"



Download TILLY AND THE WALL - "Cacophony"
Download TILLY AND THE WALL - "Jumbler"

WATCH IT – RAT BAIT

This “Rat Bait” song from 1979 by the SWIMMING POOL Q’S is so gnarly I need to make sure as many good Americans & residents of the globe hear it as possible. It’s from this venerable band’s first 45, and a quick glance at their web site and at descriptions of their music is enough to assure you that they’re not quite making ‘em like “Rat Bait” anymore. Built around a wicked secret-agent spy riff & enough throbbing blues guitar to sink a pirated Saudi tanker off the coast of Somalia, the song was introduced to me as a freshman in college by my next-door dorm roommate. He had all sorts of weird American underground records, and in 1985 it was enough for me to propose that we both become college radio DJs together & host a wacky tag-team show. The pairing didn’t last long, but we played the smokin’ “Rat Bait” a lot. It’s subsequently been comped onto an early one of Hyped2Death’s “Homework” compilations, and it’s pretty much my favorite Dixie-fried bluesy spy punk song of all time.

Play Swimming Pool Q’s – “Rat Bait”



Download THE SWIMMING POOL Q’S – “Rat Bait” (from first 45)

MESSTHETICS #106 IS HERE

Two new volumes of the life-affirming MESSTHETICS series of late 70s/early 80s English DIY series arrived in the mail not long ago, and boy were we psyched beyond belief. In this day & age of cheap music and supremely easy gratification, the CDs that Hyped2Death keep putting out give one reason to spend money again, and are the antidote to the download. The liner notes are meticulous and bursting with rare photos, flyers and lost information; the sound quality is amazing considering the source material; and of course the material itself can be jarring, perplexing and exhilirating from track to track. I've discovered some all-time favorite songs via these collections - collections that do for this scene what "Back From The Grave" and "Killed By Death" did for theirs.

The new ones are called "MESSTHETICS GREATEST HISS" (a comp of tracks from UK bedroom cassette-only releases that I'm still trying to adjust my radar to) and MESSTHETICS #106, an all-Manchester edition, circa 1977-1982. I am really taken with the Manchester edition. It’s comprised of compatriots of THE FALL and JOY DIVISION, and most of the 45s have almost never been heard outside of Northern England back in the day. Most art-leaning punks during those years and in that town aligned themselves with “the Manchester Musicians’ Collective”, a pseudo-communal collection of like-minded souls who put on shows together, released each others’ records and sometimes swapped members. As I said, the liner notes tell you just about everything you’d ever want to know about the scene and the era. I picked two tracks that are my faves so far to “represent”, as it were, from lost bands ARMED FORCE and GODS GIFT. Take a listen, and order the full CD here.

Play ARMED FORCE - "Popstar"



Download GODS GIFT - "Discipline"
Download ARMED FORCE - "Popstar"

SCIENTISTS “THERE’S A MONSTER IN ME” 45

This is a re-post of a song I put up on 3/12/07....

I stumbled across this bootleg SCIENTISTS single many years ago & reckoned it was an official release, all the more so when I took it home and promptly christened it one of the top Scientists records ever, right up there with “Blood Red River” and “This Heart Doesn’t Run On Blood....”. “There’s a Monster in Me”, the song, is among this early/mid-80s Australian group’s high-water marks – total screeching swampland gutter blues – and why it never made it to an official release is a mystery for the ages & the sages. The B-side is a barely-different version of “You Only Live Twice”, but it wasn’t anything special so I’m refraining from posting it here. Friends who saw the Scientists last year in England at the All Tomorrow’s Parties fest reported that it was like a 1983 Perth punk rock picnic come to life, like 20-some-odd years hadn’t passed or nothin’. And what’s this I hear about the BEASTS OF BOURBON touring the US this year?Anyway – dig this squealing bit of god noise, and let me know what you think.

Download THE SCIENTISTS – “There’s A Monster In Me” (from bootleg 45)

CRÈME SODA – TWO SIDES OF THE BEAST

CRÈME SODA were a Milwaukee-based band of proto-hippie punks who flitted around the edges of just about every sub-genre inherent within “rock and roll”, even those that hadn’t really been codified yet. Their 1974 single “(I’m Chewin’ Gum)” is a stone-cold masterpiece – a frantic, trashed-out slice of echo-slathered, goofball rockabilly that’s at least two-three years ahead of its time. I’m beside myself with the opportunity to present it to you today.

Here’s what I wrote about the band in 2005 not long after I’d heard this 45 for the first time, in the course of reviewing the band’s lone LP, “Tricky Zingers”:

“….I sure had never heard of this private-press proto-whatever LP until Ugly Things' "Primitive Shit Music" feature a few months back, and even then it was only trumpeting the 45 "(I'm) Chewin' Gum / Roses All Around". I searched around a little & found that single and a whole lot more -- which was this LP, the band's only contribution to the canon in their brief lifespan. First, let me second and third the dimwit majesty of the song "(I'm) Chewin' Gum" -- a manic, echophonic, hopped-up rockabilly number all methed up & ready for a greaser knife fight. 1975?!? Are you kidding me? It's immediately top of the charts for 2005 discoveries, and what's more, it's nearly 100% at odds with the rest of the record. The vocals tell me it's the same band, but jeez, I don't know.

CREME SODA's album has got some very pleasant psychedelia and laconic folk rock throughout, with good choruses and a laid back guitar hero ringing away in the background. Without knowing when the record was from, I'd have pegged it as a late 60s thing rather than pre-dating punk by a year. "Tonight", "Keep It Heavy" and "Give It Up (Man)" are the best tracks from that Creme Soda; the one that created "The Beat Song", a backward-looping, "Tomorrow Never Knows"-style droner are another beast entirely. So it's not hard to pass along kudos to such a virtuoso band of 1975 heshers & recommend this for those into the private-press US basement hippie psych navel-gazer sound. Moreover, you get "(I'm) Chewin' Gum", one for the goddamn ages!”

On the B-side of the 45 is “Roses All Around”, which might well have been recorded by an entirely different group. Such was the Jekyl/Hyde nature of CRÈME SODA. You can find a cool in-the-moment 1974 interview with the band here as well.

Play Creme Soda - "(I'm) Chewin' Gum"



Download CRÈME SODA – “(I’m) Chewin’ Gum” (A-side)
Download CRÈME SODA – “Roses All Around” (B-side)

FAT TULIPS - POP NOSTALGIA FROM A SIMPLE TIME

I not only had never heard Nottingham, England's FAT TULIPS (1987-1994) until this year, I'd never even heard of 'em. Those aforementioned years were likely my most musical-obsessed, and I vainly & snobbily prided myself during this time for knowing everything about everything. But not this excellent pop band, who were a mix of stumbling, fey twee-garage and overamped feedback & whine. It was like they turned on one persona or the other from record to record, depending on moods, or new equipment, rain or shine, or whatever. It's not like they were ever a particularly "challenging" band in any way - though you may find the rush of "Deadhead Baby" a bit of an ear-bleeder at first - but they were certainly an act I should've known something about. Tim Hinely should have told me, and he didn't.

I've been making my way through all of their material now that I found out about them, and I have to say that most of it's great, with a few plodding exceptions (the final LP/CD "Starfish" is the latter; most of their ten 45s, the ones I've heard, are the former). The Fat Tulips released an EP in 1992 called "Nostalgia" that's my favorite by far, and no, not just because it's the loudest one (I'd next recommend the "Where's Clare Grogan Now?" 45 from 1989). All 5 songs are aces, with highest marks to the sucrose rush of "Last To Know" and the whooshing "Deadhead Baby". If you can't dig these, dad, then you've got no soul. No soul at all. I've decided to present the whole thing to you here, since I'm pretty sure it's gonna make your week. Meet the FAT TULIPS, folks. British pop from the 90s. You know you love it.

Play "Deadhead Baby":



"Nostalgia" EP

Download FAT TULIPS - "Nostalgia"
Download FAT TULIPS - "Deadhead Baby"
Download FAT TULIPS - "Last To Know"
Download FAT TULIPS - "Into Space"
Download FAT TULIPS - "Copper"

MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS : “MAMA WAS A SCHITZO, DADDY WAS A VEGETABLE MAN"

This is a re-post of the Mike Rep & The Quotas posthumous 45 that Detailed Twang wrote about on 3/2/07.....

I plopped this on the turntable this past weekend and was again blown to friggin’ kingdom come by its glory. These 1975-76 recordings from original recipe proto-punk space teleporters MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS were lost to the wilds of history until Jacob Olausson's Sverige Age Records in Sweden brought them to life again in 2002 – and you know what? These two tracks are every bit as raw, wild & grimy as Rep’s original legit 45 “Rocket To Nowhere” – and if you know that one, you know it’s an all-time freak-rock knockout. Both of these tracks are mono, shit-fi productions before there was any cachet in such a thing, but Rep pretty much wrote the book on making ends greatly exceed the means, starting here. So when you listen to “Mama...” you hear drums that are every bit as heavy and echoing as Bonzo’s – and louder. The force of a thousand amps projecting simple, screaming chords into space is as alive as any other punk, pre-punk or proto-punk whatsis of the 70s. I guess the real true heavy metalloid music of the era was being created in places like Hamilton, Ontario; Chickasaw, Oklahoma and REP's Columbus, Ohio - not NY, SF and LA.

Download MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS - "Mama Was A Schitzo, Daddy Was A Vegetable Man" (A-side)

Download MIKE REP & THE QUOTAS - "Rocket Music On" (B-side)

LATHE-N-PRESS WITH THE 2x4’S

This is a pretty short post, but I’m so enamored with this sole spastic art-punker from Massachusetts’ TWO BY FOURS (aka the 2x4’s) from 1980 called “Zipperheads” that I wanted you to hear it. Last March we posted their one and only legit 45 along with a bonus track, and due to the recent purge of my files, those are no longer available. Don’t worry, I’ll give them to you another time. That’s actually one where we got a congratulatory thanks from a guy in the band – John Horvorka, who was the prime mover behind this lyrically & musically inventive/crazed/artastic band. Wish I could have seen them. “Zipperheads” is from their unreleased LP that Horvorka has now released. It’s excellent. You’ll see what I mean in a second.



Download THE 2x4'S - "Zipperheads"

TWO LOST ONES FROM 100 FLOWERS

“Lost” might be a bit of a misnomer, since both finally turned up on the “KEATS RIDES A HARLEY” reissue CD a couple of years ago, but hey, until then these were l-o-s-t, baby. You wanted ‘em, you had to come into my room, or you had to buy an original “Keats” LP and an original “Life Is Ugly, So Why Not Kill Yourself?” compilation LP. 100 FLOWERS, as you may know, were the URINALS after the Urinals decided to take it up a notch – or down, depending on one’s point of view. They existed from 1981-1984, and nearly everything they ever recorded, I think save these two songs, was packaged on a great CD called “100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE” that you can still find.

Here’s what I wrote about it a few years ago:

“….I still marvel at the clean break this band made from their original sputtering, spastic sound simply by changing their name. I'm speaking, of course, of the immediate 180-degree transformation from the URINALS (1978-81) into 100 FLOWERS (1981-84), with all 3 original members still in tow. I'm sure I once knew why they made the switch; probably a rejection of the punk rock rootz in favor of the more wink-nod cultural revolution moniker 100 FLOWERS. And not like The Urinals had a real high profile when they were around, but my sources tell me 100 Flowers barely registered in and around LA the three years they were existent, despite high-profile comp appearances on punker collections "Hell Comes To Your House" and "Keats Rides a Harley". When this near-compleat compilation came out almost 15 years ago in the early days of CDs, somehow it ended up remaindered and priced to move in a hurry, so my cousin gobbled up a couple dozen of them and handed them out like aspirin to anyone who'd take one. I took one. Though it is certainly not without its meandering moments and some misfired art-funk overreach, "100 Years of Pulchritude" is one of those great lost essential CDs that needs to be added to your collection ASAP.

100 Flowers were a real unique & strange animal. Three UCLA grad students/professors, who were sworn to punk brevity and form but were also quite resistant to all its manifest trappings. They created a minimalist stew of buzzing chop-chop-chop guitar, way upfront funk bass and a skittering percussion that kept the beat and took it off course as well. If they weren't "post-punk" I'm not sure who were. Their M.O. was likely to keep it as real as possible, which meant pleasing themselves foremost & hoping a few others might get wise to their charms. Their debut LP featured one member, John Talley-Jones I believe, lounging completely nude, dangling his participle for all the world to comment on (only the Don Bolles weenie-wagging on that VOX POP EP comes close). If I had to pick a favorite of these 28 kinetic, wildly different set of tunes, it would have to be the bonzai "Motorboat to Hell" from their one and only LP, as well as that record's closer "California's Falling Into The Ocean". Both have the crazed, attacking drive of the second two Urinals 45s, but add a dollop of breaks and quick jumps that show not only more instrumental proficiency, but a real attempt to branch out and paint with a new artful & brainy pallatte. By the time they put out their final EP "Drawing Fire", they were headed in a more atmospheric & dense direction ("Triage" and "Contributions") that was getting mighty boring mighty fast, which might be why they scattered & went on to new projects. Still, those tracks (and the omission of the fantastic "Salmonella" from "Keats Rides a Harley") don't mar anything -- the CD is one of those overviews that duly unwraps a band's hidden charms, and gives them their due way past what they likely reckoned to be their shelf life at the time. Track this down if your interest is at all piqued; at the least it might be a kick trying to locate a CD that's been unavailable for years, right? (Or you can order it right now directly from the artist -- not quite as fun but so much more spiritually fulfilling)….”

Get that, get these, and call it a day, why don’t ya?





Download 100 FLOWERS – “Salmonella” (from 1981 “Keats Rides a Harley” compilation)
Download 100 FLOWERS – “Sensible Virgin” (from 1982 “Life Is Ugly…” compilation)

JUST SO’S YOU KNOW….

All of the mp3 files that were posted prior to last Tuesday’s UXA post have officially been taken down by my former hosting provider, Box.net, due to complaints of a vague nature. I can’t stress enough that if you’re an artist whose songs somehow make it onto this site & you’re wanting them taken down, all you need to do is send an email to jayhinman-at-hotmail-dotcom and let me know.

Meanwhile, those folks who’re emailing asking me for various files that you missed out on, here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m going to institute a “second chance” program for some of these gems, and will be intermittently reposting some of the better ones in the weeks and months to come. Stay patient, come back often, and when something goes up, I want you to strike like a coiled & hissing cobra if you can. Who knows who’s gonna get angry and make me take them down. It is what it is, and even I’m not too bent out of shape about it. More new mp3s coming later this week as well.

THE KENT 3’s ROAR BACK

A while back I posted some files from THE KENT 3 and got some pretty good feedback from the people on them. As mentioned before, this simple spaghetti-surf/garage punk/hard rock band are one the most simple & enjoyable bands in my “collection”, a band it’d be easy to ignore yet one I listen to all the time. I’m still partial to the “Spells” and “Stories of The New West” CDs, but this EP I’m posting for you today is the one that sorta woke folks up to what a great friggin’ band they’d become. See, they had this one LP from 1994 called “Screaming Youth Fantastic” that arrived with a thud, thanks to some too-rough, tuneless vocals and pretty uninspiring songs. I forgot they were even around until some Seattle friends clued me to “KENT 3 Mach II” around 1996, telling me that they were pretty much the best band in town, having ditched the vocalist and now rocking some of the strangest, funniest most obtuse lyrics around.

I bought the six-song double 45 they put out on Super Electro records in ’96 and was hooked. Moved to Seattle myself the next year, and they became my weekend live band. Saw them at The Break Room, the Sit-n-Spin, the Crocodile and elsewhere multiple times. I’m going to warn you on something, though – the first track on this one, “Basketball Medics”, is a little wacky and perhaps too cute/clever for its own good. I’d skip straight to “Satellite” and go from there, though completists always download them all. Enjoy.

Download THE KENT 3 – “Basketball Medics” (Side A)
Download THE KENT 3 – “Satellite” (Side B)
Download THE KENT 3 – “North End Bruisers” (Side C, Track 1)
Download THE KENT 3 – “Pinkland” (Side C, Track 2)
Download THE KENT 3 – “Shooting Stars” (Side D, Track 1)
Download THE KENT 3 – “North End Baby” (Side D, Track 2)

LIFE & DEATH IN THE U.X.A.

(photo by James Stark)

Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with all the music I’ve been posting here the past couple years. Swear to Christ they told me they were taking it all down yesterday, but this morning, Tuesday 10/28/08, you can still go ahead and download full tracks from all the 45s and compilations I’ve shared here. We’ll see how long it lasts. I’ve got a backup plan in any case. Detailed Twang will continue, and indeed, persevere. We’ll either move the new files to a new server, or we’ll just go ahead and keep using the old one, and hope that the threat of removal was a nasty, nasty dream. So there it is. (late-breaking news - I have been locked out of Box.net for new files, so this track below can be played or downloaded from DivShare).

Next up on our cavalcade of lost hits is this total smoker from LA-by-way-of-San Francisco’s U.X.A., circa 1979. This eponymous track, “U.X.A”, was one of two thumpers from Chris D.’s 1979 compilation LP of LA bands, “TOOTH AND NAIL”, certainly one of the great compilations of that and any other era, boasting contributions from THE FLESH EATERS, THE GERMS, MIDDLE CLASS, CONTROLLERS and others. UXA have mostly been a punk rock footnote from that era, and perhaps deservedly so, though if all the songs were as ripping as the one I’m posting here I suspect singer DeDe Troit would be lionized and worshipped by many a “punter”. Her/their LP “Illusions of Grandeur” from 1980 is sort of a one-note mid-tempo bummer, but I will admit that when I saw the reformed UXA live in LA at Raji’s in 1990 (only 11 years after the real deal – just like seeing a 1997 band today, right?) they were great, and played louder-faster-shorter punk rock like they were back at The Masque, right down the street. And DeDe looked great, a total hot lipsticked punk banshee snarling in everyone’s face. That’s the band I choose to remember.

So the other night I went to this Target Video Night in Berkeley were they showed old clips from “back in the day” (no UXA, though), and someone in the crowd made a comment during the Q&A that DeDe Troit “went Christian” and that everyone needed to pitch in to “deprogram” her. A bit harsh perhaps, but hey, that’s a bitter old punk for ya. Anyone know the truth of the matter? Oh, and caught up in all this conjucture I forgot to remind you for the fourth time to please take a listen to “U.X.A.” by U.X.A. below!



Play or Download U.X.A. – “U.X.A” (from 1979 compilation “Tooth & Nail”)

THE ‘TWANG GETS BUSTED

I have received word from Box.net, my mp3 hosting provider, that they’ve received multiple complaints that Detailed Twang is violating copyright by sharing some of the basement-level, pressing-of-400 punk rock, noise, and weird pop 45s we like to share here. Therefore, all of my files will be taken down by them on October 27th, 2008. Do what you need to do – there’s a lot of great music available. I started posting songs with the 1/27/07 post, and have been averaging 2 per week ever since then. I’m going to have to say goodbye for now as I figure out another way to bring you music, which typically is blessed ex-post-facto by the musical artists themselves. For any artists who’ve felt wronged by anything we’ve put up here, say the word and it will down in seconds (the sole time someone – METROPAK – complained, I had the song taken down immediately).

It’s not censorship, and it’s not something I have any right to complain about – the laws are the laws, but I reckoned we’d moved into a world where sites like mine were considered more of a flame-keeping blessing or “help” to the defunct artist than an actual hindrance to future royalties, real or imagined. As I understand it, there weren’t a lot of royalties associated with 45s by, say, the TIKI MEN, JOHANNA WENT or MONOSHOCK, to target my three most recent posts. But it is what it is. In the meantime, see you over at HEDONIST BEER JIVE and FIRST PRINCIPLES, two blogs of mine that violate no man’s laws, and perhaps only their sense of propriety.

JOHANNA WENT BUZZES & HOWLS UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Here’s a brief interlude into some early 80s wackness, a track called “Mosquito” by Los Angeles performance artist JOHANNA WENT that I discovered on one of the old “HOMEWORK” compilations, and which is more properly heard on Went’s 1982 EP “Hyena”. JOHANNA WENT is mostly known to me as a woman who opened some of the early punk/art shows in LA, doing strange pieces that involved music and pre-Karen Finlay stabs at attention vis-à-vis gross-out exploitation and general insanity. The photo of her with worms pouring out of her mouth and smeared all over her face is a classic image from the “HARDCORE CALIFORNIA” punk rock history, and is always the image that springs to mind with I think of the young lass. “Mosquito” is a great buzzing minute of caterwauling nonsense vocals, vaguely dub echoes and a frantic percussion that barely rides the rails until it just – poof – disappears. I don’t know if she performed stuff like this live, but I gotta say I like it. Another proof point in the case for Los Angeles 1978-82 being pretty much the greatest, most explosive & inventive scene in rock and roll history. Who’s with me?

Play or Download JOHANNA WENT – “Mosquito” (from 1982 “Hyena” EP)

MONOSHOCK AND THE BIRTH/DEATH OF WOMB

In 1994 I learned about the low start-up & pressing costs associated with putting out 45rpm singles, then not entirely uncoincidently clogging up the bins at record stores worldwide, and being a man of limited vision - but with great imitative “follow-on” skills - I decided to start my own record label. WOMB Records is what I called it, after a derogatory but still somehow mildly comic term my insane, germ-phobic, liquid paper-huffing freshman dorm roommate had for the opposite gender. All I needed was a fantastic young band to document where I could get a jump on the competition, and thankfully that young band were good friends who lived in my town of San Francisco or across the bay in Oakland. MONOSHOCK granted Womb Records exclusive rights to their debut record, sealed over a beer (I don’t remember that actually happening, but I’m sure beer was involved somehow).

MONOSHOCK had recently reconstituted in the Bay Area after a few years in the rock and roll wilderness. They were a fantastic loud, fuzz-driven, psych-heavy “college band” circa 1988-89 in Isla Vista, CA, but in the subsequent four years had split off and lived in different locales, playing in various bands like LIQUOR BALL (Grady Runyan), EARLY MAN SITE (all of them, I think), and I forget who else. When they reformed in 1993, as great as they were before that, “in the eighties”, it was like a total 2.0 retransformation had occurred. I remember they played a party at Anthony Bedard’s house opening for Claw Hammer one Sunday afternoon, maybe their second or third gig back together, and they kicked off with a damaged sonic assault of an instrumental called “Nobody Recovery”, and my jaw hit the goddamn floor. For once, one of my friends’ bands was a real band, a band I needed to tell the world about. You know how that worked back in your twenties – you had all those "fun" bands your friends were in that you had to go see repeatedly because they were your pals, very few of whom you’d actually buy a record from or pay money to see if, say, they were from another locale. I was beside myself with how well these guys were playing & how many incredibly spaced-out & feedback-drenched monsters they were pumping out every couple of weeks around that time (1993).

So a little less than a year later, Monoshock’s “Primitive Zippo / Change That Riff / Nobody Recovery” EP became WOMB 001. The band were kind enough to let me pick the tracks to put on the record, so I picked what I thought were the three hottest from their demo at the time – and I worked closely with Rubin Fiberglass, the band’s drummer and occasional singer (lead duties on the verses of “Primitive Zippo” and all of “Change That Riff”), to choose the ridiculous bears-playing-hockey back cover and Gary Usher insert from his collection of saved images (the latter came from a high school yearbook someone found). The front cover is a painting of Fiberglass enjoying some healthy intake from a trusted friend, rendered directly from a photograph by Somis, CA renderer Craig Borrell. Lettering by Kelly Richardson. I’m reprinting all of the images – front and back cover, plus both sides of the insert, here.

The single came out in an edition of 1,000, which seemed like about 400 too many until Julian Cope went bonkers for the band a few years ago and COMETS ON FIRE started namechecking Monoshock as a major influence. I remember throwing a couple of them on eBay in the early oughts and getting zero bids; last year I plopped one of the remaining few up there and nailed $25 after a frenzied bidding war. I think the entire pressing cost $600, plus another $200 for materials – which, when you could wholesale them for $1.50 each or more, meant profit for sure if you kept your pressing at the right level. Anyway, as mentioned before, there were more than enough people putting out 45s at the time, and I figured that any truly great music would eventually get heard without me having to pay for it. WOMB only pressed one more record, and that was a co-release of the DEMOLITION DOLL RODS’ debut EP with Anthony Bedard’s PAST IT records, which we posted in mp3 form in its entirety here, and which Past It generated not one but two full represses of on their own.

MONOSHOCK went on to put out two more outstanding singles and one full-length platter called “Walk To the Fire”. Their entire remaining non-LP discography was cleaned up, remastered, and comped into a CD called “Runnin’ Backwards From The Ape-Like Superman”, which I wrote about on my old Agony Shorthand blog here. It sounds amazing, and it contains the debut EP we’re posting for you here, just cleaned up a bit. I’ll admit it sounds better on the CD, but it you like ‘em raw, here’s Monoshock’s debut EP from 1994, ripped straight from the original vinyl.

Play or Download MONOSHOCK – “Primitive Zippo” (A-side)

Play or Download MONOSHOCK – “Change That Riff” (B-side, Track 1)

Play or Download MONOSHOCK – “Nobody Recovery” (B-side, Track 2)

CLAW HAMMER, ACT FOUR

Posting the CLAW HAMMER early 1990s discography has been one of my raisons de etre, if you will, since I started putting up mp3s on this site a couple years ago. We've taken their masterwerks and unleashed them to you in order, starting with their earliest compilation tracks, into their first 45 "Poor Robert", through the second single "Sick Fish Belly Up" and up until the 3rd 45, "Candle Opera". Now we come to this Los Angeles band's fourth single, a fantastic slab of white-hot molten grease called "Brother Bricks Says" b/w "Don't Walk Away (live)". The former track showed up in a (very) slightly different version on the band's debut LP in 1990, and pretty much everyone agrees it was one of their finest scorchers, a tribute to an older and more rambunctious brother of singer/guitarist Jon Wahl's, and a track that made just about every set list back in the day.

"Don't Walk Away" is a bit of a rarity - a live song with guitarist Chris Bagarozzi pressed into rare vocal duties, and you can listen & learn as the young man screams his friggin' lungs out. Wahl comes in and rescues the proceedings about halfway through, but the aural damage has been done by that point. Seriously, this has all the hallmarks of the classic CLAW HAMMER sounds - extremely amped guitar, weird Beefheartian riffs, power chords straight off of "Kick Out The Jams" and a supreme dose of righteous boogie.

Play or Download CLAW HAMMER - "Brother Brick Says" (A-side)
Play or Download CLAW HAMMER - "Don't Walk Away (live)" (B-side)

A GIRL FOR ME, AND A GIRL FOR YOU

Seems every time when I buy my umpteenth 1960s girl-group LP or CD, and go through it to pick out the invariable small number of winners, I become frustrated and I go back to the compilations that got me into this sound to begin with – “EARLY GIRLS”; “WHERE THE GIRLS ARE”; “ULTRA CHICKS” etc. Even those are fully packed with duds, leading one to conclude that this vaunted boom-ch-boom, thumping aural candy was really the provenance of a very select group of producers and singers. I think it’s possible, though not likely, that I’ve already heard every great girl-group song of the 1960s. I certainly hope to stand corrected.

Want to hear two of the very best? I thought that you might. JOEY HEATHERTON was an American actress and singer that I seem to remember from really bad TV in the 1970s; her Wikipedia page seems to confirm my suspicions. However this young lass cut the ultimate big-time booming slice of sugar-coated wall of sound in “Live And Learn”, the B-side of her 1966 single, “When I Call You Baby”. This song is just about perfect…..almost as perfect as “Wishing Well” by the SHANGRI-LA’S, who need little or no introduction. I’m pretty much positive that this is the finest of many fine Shangri-La’s numbers, though I do welcome dissent. The A-side of their very first 45, released in 1964. More from other long-ago girls in the near future.

Play or Download JOEY HEATHERTON - "Live and Learn"
Play or Download THE SHANGRI-LA'S - "Wishing Well"

VOX POP’S DEATH TRIP SNARL

This next track came from the great “CHUNKS” compilation that LA’s New Alliance records put out in 1981, featuring The Minutemen, Black Flag, The Chiefs and a bunch of the other usual suspects in the SST/New Alliance/New Underground orbit. First time I heard this snarling VOX POP track, “You’re My Favorite”, I was all, “hey, that’s 45 GRAVE”. Well, it sort of was, given that Dinah Cancer was on vocals, Don Bolles on drums and Paul B. Cutler on guitar – just like 45 GRAVE. Jeff Dahl was also involved, and if you read this great recap of the band, you’ll get a lot more information that I could ever provide. It’s probably important to note that the band lineup was never really “fixed”, so the band that made the great “Cab Driver/Just Like Your Mom” 45, with Dahl on vocals, sounds not a whole lot like the band doing “You’re My Favorite”, outside of the vaguely metal tendencies. As you can see from the aforementioned link, there’s a spectacular 12”EP on Mystic Records (!), spectacular not because the music’s any great shakes (it’s not), but because of the audacity of the cover photo of Don Bolles dangling his participle for all the world to see. Still the last taboo when it comes to album art, and probably the one thing that pops into peoples’ heads when they think of VOX POP. I just listened to “You’re My Favorite” the other day, though, registered its rulingness, and decided that you needed to hear it.

Play or Download VOX POP – “You’re My Favorite” (from 1981 “Chunks” compilation LP)

TEDDY & THE FRAT GIRLS’ SHEER SMEGMA

One of the most unhinged pieces of vinyl from the go-go early 1980s is the “Audio Suicide” EP from SHEER SMEGMA, released at the dawn of the Reagan era in 1980. I’d like to post a song from it for you here called “I Owe It To The Girls”. It’s a beautiful aural cancer, destined to drive you to drink or worse. Here’s something I wrote about the band and this song on an old blog a few years ago:

I’ve touted this ear-bleeding band of low class 1980 Florida freaks for a few years on the basis on the two trailer trash tracks of theirs I’d heard: “Club Night” and “I Owe It To The Girls”. Both came from their only EP “Audio Suicide”, a record that’s achieved semi-legendary status as one of more retarded noisy shrieks of the punk/D.I.Y. era. Very soon after its release, the band quickly switched their name to the far more refined TEDDY AND THE FRAT GIRLS (as in Florida mass murderer Ted Bundy). Danger has always lurked in my mind knowing that Jello Biafra put out the 12”EP version by the new group in 1982 (same exact songs), and now that I’ve heard the band’s dumb poop song (“Alophen Baby”) and their dumb fake-German genderbender song (“I Wanna Be a Man”), I can certainly guess which half Jello probably fell for. But those other two, the ones available on compilations (KBD #5 and one of the HOMEWORKs, respectively), are just destroyed.

If it’s true that the band were really sun-baked junkies, you’ll have no problem believing it in a country minute when you hear the gasping cries of terror and withdrawal at the end of “I Owe It To The Girls”. The woman who “sings” sounds about 16, and wise to the evil ways of the world far beyond her years. Her potty mouth and reckless disregard for taste & style is now the stuff of legend, and the music is this barely-registering herk-and-jerk minimalist guitar fuzz and bass. Totally weird and out of step with all that's right and true. Outside of maybe the first HALF JAPANESE record, I can’t think of a really good 45 that would piss off parents, neighbors and your alternajerk friends more then this one.

Subsequent to that post, my Agony Shorthand blog received this comment from one "Jonny 5":

club nite and i owe it to the girls were both written by my mom Sarah P. aka Fish who wrote for the now truly legendary Mouth Of Rat fanzine (1st of its kind in SoFla + eventual record label to beastie boys) before forming this all girl band with a 16 year old singer (bingo!) a 20+ ex-debutante turned punkette and the wife of Eat gttrst Eddie O'Brien. My uncle Mike Allen who lived next door and cleaned pools at Centuy Village w/my mom snuck them into the CenVil club house to shoot the "piano/cello stage shot... the front shot was done in our dining room with a roll of backgroud color and xeroxed at their work fer free. I was 13/14 at the time and co-wrote alophen baby and iwanna be a man with Cookie and my 7 year old sister Lona. Cookie & Spam want to Cali and sold the rights to the tapes to Jello without Fish's consent. The woman who wrote "I Owe It To The Girls" & "Club Nite" has never been addressed for her contribution to the venture... jonny 5

Play or Download SHEER SMEGMA/TEDDY & THE FRAT GIRLS – “I Owe It To The Girls” (from 1980 7”EP)

LEAVING TRAINS HIT VIRGINIA CITY

You know how you hear early demos of a band after you’ve heard the official versions, and they most often sound like hollow, shell versions of the song you’ve come to love? That’s why they’re demos – they’re generally forged as the band is learning to play, recorded as a way to get gigs or document existence, with little thought to making records. Often these early recordings are doled out after the fact for free to folks who’re putting out compilations, rather than recorded expressly for the compilations themselves. I’m not sure what the real story was with the LEAVING TRAINS and the “Keats Rides A Harley” compilation of LA bands in 1981, but their track “Virginia City” ended up being the most raw, frantic and alive thing they ever did.

The subsequent recording of the track on their first record blunted its sharp edges and just made it into an average keyboard punker. Likewise with a lot of the band’s material after this. Sure, I dug the Leaving Trains in college – we all did – but you couldn’t pay me to listen to “Kill Tunes” or “F*ck” all the way through now, let alone anything they did after that, when singer/leader/guitarist Falling James began prancing around in a dress and drinking/using drugs to near-oblivion. Actually I never actually saw him use mind-altering drugs, so never mind – just talked to him on at least two occasions as he licked his lips, scanned the room nervously, and spouted non-sequiters.

Anyway, this version of “Virginia City” was the LEAVING TRAINS’ first vinyl appearance, and it sounds even louder and hotter ripped straight off on my vinyl copy of “Keats” than it did on CD when the comp was digitized and released a couple of years ago. Hope you agree.

Play or Download THE LEAVING TRAINS – “Virginia City” (from 1981 compilation LP, “Keats Rides a Harley”)

FINDINGS IN THE DESPERATE HUNT FOR POP

Folks, I took the last month off from blogging in this spot & filled that time talking trash on my other two blogs (links on the right), while also engaging in a deep dive into modern pop music in search of treasure. Let me tell you, you've got to wade through a lot of thick kelp to find the glittering prizes, but I think I've got a few ringers for you here that'll set your toes to tappin'. First up is a solo act from Glasglow, Scotland called BUBBLEGUM LEMONADE. Lest you think they're/he's totally telegraphing the sound with that moniker - um - aww, who am I kidding, that's exactly what it sounds like. Big beat, fuzzed-out, hook-heavy pop at the intersection of the Mary Chain, the Velvet Underground and the Shop Assistants. I think this particular track was worth taking the month off for, what do you think? They have a new EP out now, their second, and we'll let you know what we think once we get around to buying one.

So this guy Laz from Bubblegum Lemonade, turns out he's something of a renaissance man. He went and started up another band with himself, and this time added a young lady to help out with vocals, and poof: STRAWBERRY WHIPLASH. Turns out they've got an excellent EP called "Who's In Your Dreams", and that happens to the track I'm posting for you today. A little less aggro than the other "band", a bit more sweetness and light, and with whomping hooks and 60s tambourines/percussion that rattle in the head for hours. Finally, there's this track from Omaha, Nebraska's TILLY AND THE WALL. Now, I know that what little you know about these folks probably centers on the tap dancer and the attractive young twentyomethings in the band and stops there. Well, if you ask us here at Detailed Twang, their new CD "O" is the goldmine pop record of 2008. It's about the most commercial thing I've allowed myself to like since The Breeders, I'm thinking, and I'm also thinking that I'm done with thinking in those terms. You know what I mean? Good is good. I think you'll see what I mean when ya click on the link below.

Play or Download BUBBLEGUM LEMONADE - "Unsafe at Any Speed" (from "Ten Years Younger" EP)
Play or Download STRAWBERRY LEMONADE - "Who's In Your Dreams?" (from "Who's In Your Dreams?" EP)
Play or Download TILLY AND THE WALL - "Jumbler" (from "O" CD)

THE GREATEST ROCK MUSIC OF ALL TIME

Detailed Twang is going on another one of its extended hiatuses following this post. At this point, it feels like I’ve digitized and posted most of the five-star 45s, comp tracks and strange rarities in my collection that aren’t already on CD or posted elsewhere by other blogs. It only took two years of mp3-rich posts 2-4 times per week, but I’m done tapped out – or at least it feels that way. Sure, I could shift the focus here to politics or beer, but I already carry two blogs under those weighty subjects – check them out at FIRST PRINCIPLES and HEDONIST BEER JIVE if you’re interested. Thing is, I’m sure the ‘Twang will be back sooner rather than later. I’ll find some box of 45s in the garage somewhere, or gather inspiration from some musical obsession or another, and be right back in this space, ranting and spewing.

Meanwhile, let me at least take my leave with the single greatest 45rpm record of all time, 1975’s masterwerk from PERE UBU, “30 Seconds Over Tokyo / Heart of Darkness”. This is, for me, the rock and roll record to end all records. If I had to choose, I’d take the uber-masterpiece B-side as having the edge over the masterpiece A-side. I have no further comment, as none is necessary (plus, I already wrote a bunch here). Thanks, enjoy, and please work your way through the archives, as all mp3s are still live and ready for taking.

Play or Download PERE UBU – “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” (A-side)
Play or Download PERE UBU – “Heart of Darkness” (B-side)

FLEXIDISC TIME!

In 1988 an "indie rock" magazine much in the vein of today's MAGNET or yesteryear's PUNCTURE called REFLEX included a 6" flexidisc of a 1979 MISSION OF BURMA demo inside all copies. It was a huge surprise, given as how around that time, all the archival Mission of Burma material was spilling out onto LPs and EPs on Taang! Records, save for this one fantastic demonstration recording of one of Burma's finest songs. Nope, that was saved for a flexidisc in some crap magazine with the Cocteau Twins on the cover. Still hasn't been compiled anywhere, so I just went ahead and digitized it for you so you can add it to your collection of mp3s & such. Enjoy!

Play or Download MISSION OF BURMA - "This Is Not A Photograph" (demo, from 1988 Reflex magazine flexidisc)

THE MOTARDS' "I'M A CRIMINAL" EP

The 1990s garage punk eruption was already totally on when this thing arrived in my mitts, but it was no less of an upside-the-head wallop for its tardiness. THE MOTARDS were an Austin, TX quintet who played stupid-simple, "learning to play" rock of the highest order, and who never made one this good again (though their follow-up 45 was still pretty hot). Total gargles-with-gravel, treble-heavy, DWARVES-style room-clearing punk rock and roll. I played it over and over and over that year (what was it, 1994?), and now, fourteen years later, I’d like to provide you with the same opportunity.

Play or Download THE MOTARDS - "I'm A Criminal" (A-side)
Play or Download THE MOTARDS - "The Fast Song" (B-side, Track 1)
Play or Download THE MOTARDS - "My Love Is Bad" (B-side, Track 2)

DUST DEVILS: DU YOU REMEMBER???

From my old blog, Agony Shorthand, March 22nd 2003:

Decided to make myself a CD-R of the 1990 DUST DEVILS LP “Struggling Electric And Chemical” this afternoon, and tacked on a four-song 7”EP from the year before called “Dust Devils Is Big Leggy”. Remember this band? Always shackled by frequent, relatively accurate comparisons to Sonic Youth, the Manhattan-based Dust Devils got a bit of late-80s notoriety in Europe, released a few long-gone 12” records out there, put out the aforementioned “Struggling…” on the young Matador label (actually a co-release with Teen Beat), and then churned through a bunch of new members for a few years before packing it in (there may have been another LP in there somewhere, I don’t remember). One time on a visit to New York, I went to see them at CBGB a year after seeing them put on a great, loud-as-hell show in San Francisco with their “Struggling..” lineup of Lower East Side poster girl Jaqi on vocals & guitar, Mark Ibold (later of Pavement) on bass and Michael Duane on guitar (and oh yeah, a drummer). In New York, I walked in to find a band with a DUDE on vocals – no guitar in his hands - and Gerard Cosloy, Matador head, on bass (!). The end was definitely near.

Anyway, so how’s it hold up in 2003? Always a relevant question. Not too bad, I’d say, though this act was always pretty hit and miss. They had a knack for texturing washes of droning, ringing guitar in dense, noisy sheets very very well, and when they applied that to actual songs like “Throw The Bottleful” or “Love You Like a Rock”, it sounded pretty great. They also start the LP with an outstanding 10-minute cover of The Fall’s “Hip Priest” – a bold move that paid off handsomely. Lots of noisy, quasi-experimental filler in there as well that is produced well; that’s about the best I can say of it. I’d put them near the upper 20% of the era’s bands, and if you find a copy of this one used for under ten bucks, hey, why not give it a whirl.

(2008 postscript - no need. Here they are.)

Download DUST DEVILS - "Struggling, Electric and Chemical" LP
Download DUST DEVILS - "Dust Devils Is Big Leggy" 7"EP