The Fagettes out of Alston, MA sent me their latest self released single a little while back and this long holiday weekend it only made sense to give this a spin, well all my records for that matter...instead of going outside in the insane cold. Every time I have to search for their name or think about saying it outloud...it cracks me up. I had to expect a little bit of garage-y punk especially with a track title like "My Girl Looks like Johnny Thunders". They know what their talking about and then make fun of it.
A-Side's "If I See Him Again" has a lot of texture on their big style and sound. Even a farfisa organ ringing out with a distanced electric...and tambourine? This is going huge '50s freakout style... a little bit of psych... just bordering on a Shangri La's on ecstacy sound. Like the Mummies their all garage and loose with guy/girl vocals playing off each other. Bendy solo with a patina settled on this so the raw and loose style is under the covers. Wrangled by this six piece into a kind of authentic bubblegum racket.
"On Drugs" shoots up loose, swaying guitar riffs with Mel (not peaches) on vocals this time as a Nico puppet and the rest of the reference isnt lose on Ryan who carried this Velvets sound through. Sort of Fresh and Onlys or Franke Rose core sounds here... wait... did he just reference the Viet Cong? And this is recorded recently? They sent me a handwritten note anyway, but maybe its been lost since the '60s this whole time. They run the latter half of the track through a memory echo plex for that damaged flashback sound. A Tom rhythm takes over with essential pounding. Mel harmonizes with herself ooooing in the background. Aptly titled they really explore where that psych sound is left today.
B-Side "My Girl Looks Like Johnny Thunders" is another case for this thing having been long lost in the mail for years, for the reference and the sound. I rememeber that guy had long hair and was super skinny, walking around the cold streets of NYC in a leather jacket probably, a mess to everyone. His girlfriend? Well I guess its about personality. They really lock in the harmonica and organ on this one. Ryan gets all decisive and snotty while Peaches is rocking those far off Ronettes harmonies like an angelic choir behind this bad ass on a motorcycle. The harmonica is even blown out and played droning on one-note Cale style. They've got enough attitude to want to see this out live, jammed between The Crocodiles and The Mantles.
Get it direct from the bandcamp page.
I need this!
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