Gardens on Urinal Cake Records

Oh yea, Urinal Cake is back on the scene with this glow in the dark (!) single from Gardens which features and was recorded by Greg Ashley, who I was just looking into this morning and is a perfect match for the Gardens kind of loose psych sound they've been working with since 2007 so the experimental layered weirdness side of Greg is a no brainer.

"Days to Name" gets going with a hard rock driving beat like Nude Beach, with that same kind of blue collar, Springstein drawl over the jangly rapid fire strums. Just like the Beets or a heavy Replacement's vibe, going way back...all that straight up songwriting... all their hearts into it. The rest of the band comes in to join Jeffrey on vocals and they've got a crazy jumbly solo at the end... They aren't letting the guitar get away from them, vocally Jeffrey follows this line but basically they set up this jangle, ramshackle sound that has a lot to do with that Woods or The Mantles...not just any kind of echo psych, but the tacked together pop that has soul to it... maybe because it's laid bare, just naked. No pretense here and a little bit of a Dylan twang of a folk song here... but this is pure rock and roll from the alternative '80s or '90s too. A couple of guitars and a rolling beat, windows down. Stops on a dime. No fades.

"The Onion Peels of Honest John" is even looser still, the guitar has more distortion and flails around on this side, while Jeffrey uses a stacatto spoken word style of vocal with this puzzling garage sound that can't possibly be this catchy? A hint of The Johnny Ill band in its sparser parts. The raw distortion played with a baseball bat, strange keys that are toy piano style mashed, slightly off, sounding even like Jo Jack Talcum's monotone delivery... matter of fact, there's the rock, I can't explain this situation except to throw a little blues in here. Talking about this 'honest john', ring the tones out, jangle twang electric, glowy organ style behind this, vocal layered under a spring reverb, gorgeous surf sounds from inside this modern garage.

The vinyl glows, I even held it in a cupped in my hands like a weido, and it works. Greek cover of aliens picking up the world in a net, why not? Crazy sketch of Keith Richards on the back...I know it's him guys, it's definitely him! I know it!

Stop pissing on that Urinal Cake and order it.