It still breaks my heart when I'm reminded of the passing of Windian founder, Travis Jackson. His wife is still accepting donations here. I got a nice note from Windian co founder Eric with the singles from this subscription series and it's really great that the label is continuing on in his memory.
The Ettes are a three piece originally from Los Angeles who have relocated to the garage rock capital of the country, Nashville. Guitar, drums and bass are the perfect rock arrangement. It's the right amount of everything, forcing just enough raw, stripped down sound while not being completely naked as a duo. They channel a '50s bad girl garage sound with a lot of Outsiders leaning against the wall attitude and reverb.
A-side's "Cry On My Shoulder" has a tambourine and stomp tom beat with warped, shifted high vocals from Coco Hames sounding like a lost Ween track with that same laid back songwriting and helium. It's a great twisted main vocal that's completely sincere and actually sweet but with that little bit of craziness built in. A perfect balance of tone, being just off enough and something you want to hear a lot. Elliot Smith on the wrong speed or a flashback to that prom you didn't end up going to where all your friends are there, just smaller. Then you wake up.
B-side "Girl I'll Never Be" is nothing like that first side and I love when something like this comes out of nowhere for me. More warped production on this one with a lot of the low end built up bleeding across the fuzz and mess with Coco sounding cleaner but powerful. It's a real muddy side that has a mysterious layer of wax paper on everything. Coco is sounding like Karen O singing into a cardboard box her surf soul which completely changed the A-Side now, this is more aggressive and ready for a fight. This bass line and kick drum are overdriven into the depths and the guitars are downright eerie barely existing off in the fringes. Completely original production and I definitely want to hear a whole bunch of songs back to back from these guys. Is that even possible?
Get this from Windian Records.
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