How is it such a tiny world? I barely start looking into this last one, The Ostrich from Mammoth Cave and it's Chris from the Sharp Ends. Turns out he and the drummer, Mike went from Ostrich to the Sharp Ends.
This sleeve is classic punk, printed + cut out at home. It's a war photograph. I think Pearl Harbor...a bunch of ships from the air circling around on the back. It's massive destruction, a turning point in civilization...world war...so I was guessing this might be a tad bit heavier than the Sharp Ends direction...not really, there's a pretty clear line from this to the sharp ends.
So what's the difference? Well, The O is cleaner sounding, not the sort of direct blues garage direction let's say, more sinister then party garage. It's definitely dark vocally, the instrumentation maybe puts this into slightly laid back psyche/rock at times, thanks to the organ but it's more frontman heavy with Chris' delivery here, it's a little funhouse clown menacing this time. Kind of tough and a touch goth and mixed way out front.
Mt Fuji in Red has this great opening percussion part and the chorus is harmonic feedback alternating with chords...it's a great sound. If anything this sounds a little too together, something about the mix puts everything on the same level. This one ends with lots of spooky screaming theremin, and it's going rockabilly here for some reason. Leave it to the Cramps to have completely co-opted that 'instrument'.
The B-Side track 'Rabies' steps things up a bit, and it gets pretty raw....this is a precursor to the Ends definitely. It shows how much the way it's recorded is effecting the sound...this could be on a Sharp Ends single, if it had more life and texture to the recording...the performance is there.
Dig it from the Cave that is Mammoth:
After the demise of The Ostrich, enigmatic front-man Chris Zaijko and drummer Mike Bressanutti went on to form Sharp Ends to great success (selling out their debut show at Broken City in Calgary with people eager to find out if Sharp Ends could live up to The Ostrich's legacy). Needless to say, the rest is history.
We were lucky enough to find two boxes of Mt. Fuji in Red (the 2nd 7", and my favourite of the two - "Rabies" alone is worth the price of admission!), and have about 30 left, so act quickly.
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