Thursday, February 7, 2013

Miesha and the Spanks on Saved by Vinyl Records


Got around to another flexi disc from Saved by Vinyl, this one from a duo out of Calgary, Miesha and the Spanks, consisting of Miesha (of course) on guitar/vocals and Stuart on drums coming together back in 2008. I'll say it again, even better than the holy trinity of rock is the duo. I have a million theories, it could be the closeness of the group on so many levels and the back and forth of focused attention between members, that kind of black and white struggle of creation...it's all in my head. I also think it makes perfect sense touring as well, a couple of people with minimal equip could travel a lot further and cheaper than a lot of bands with tons of stuff and people. They can really hit the road and maybe even NOT lose money...it might be possible...it also might be THE FUTURE!
So Miesha and Stuart have to make a hell of a racket to entertain with just the two of them, which is no problem for the fuzzy, blown out distortion patina these two were apparently born with.

They also love their buddies C'mon and mentioned on Vueweekly:
C'mon is probably our favorite band. So some of our favourite songs that we only had on vinyl we now have as a road disc. So the song that we play, at the end of the night, after loading the gear, on the way to the party (even if that's the two of us parked on residential side-street drinking tecate and babbling about how awesome touring is until we fall asleep in the van), the song that we almost always rock out to is, "Peaches' Bathroom" by C'mon.

So guess what they cover on this flexi? You guessed it...and I can find no mention of this thing ANYWHERE ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET! Not even on the dicogs? DO flexi's even rate as physical media? Are they just forever in that weird space of something like a polaroid? It's not really a picture, kind of disposable, doesn't fit easily into a scrapbook? Contrary to popular opinion, this is a real record, that plays with near equal fidelity to a lathe cut at least and is far easier to find room for in my ever growing tinier apt.

I didn't get a chance to search for the original "Peaches Bathroom" from C'mon (R.I.P.) but Miesha's verison is a beached, grimy guitar with ultra crisp definition...the whole thing real clean. The vocals full of attitude but a laid back almost cracking delivery reminding me of BYOP's Jemina Pearl's snotty, screechy punk, but Miesha's focused on the low end of this thing...which comes across just fine on a freaking flexi by the way. Thumping bass, heavily controlled, the guitar messes about with minor chord variations, building to the end in a weird half stop. A little bit of a tough biker sound and a dash of that post punk fugazi underused chord work. This whole chunky burst of low end distortion is like atombombpocketknife, laying into a precise sound. Miesha's got a great vocal that really carries their scuzzy garage sound....like when Heather sings on The Hussy. I'm all for it.

You can listen to this cover over here and possibly contact the band or Saved by Vinyl to see if they have any of these lying around. You might get lucky. Another crazy artifact from these guys who must have pressed at least 20 up so far...and making more sense as these postal rates rise. If you have to have an antiquated format, then why not have it weigh as much as a couple sheets of paper!

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