The Yolks on Randy Records

I've been over it before guys, you know it by now, Randy Records is pressing up essential singles over there in Chicago, which is still getting snowed on, sorry guys. This one is from locals The Yolks who you also should know aren't new, these guys have been around for at least seven years now and put out a full length back in '09. Still coming up with crowd pleasers these two new ones are hand crafted in small batches in bathtubs. Not exactly USDA inspected or sanitary.
Delicious.

A-Side's "2 Dollars Out the Door" launches right into that title lyric with what seems like the chorus but switches to a harmonized doo wop '50's trio with the guys going jacked up Beach Boys behind Nathan belting this one out with that bit of overblown distortion running through the mic. Someone cranked up the gain just a little bit too much again. It was that frantic surf party feel that made him do it, all the 'wa wa waaaaoooo's' forcing this right onto the peeling checkered floor. Not that they're taking any of this too seriously except to hit that punk party rhythm immediately and not waste time dragging the track anywhere else. This is the spot I like, I'm going to party right here, no sense in walking all over kingdom come for the same PBR. The mics pick up on someone saying 'nailed it' at the end of this and I really want to believe with all my heart this was recorded all at once in the same room in just a few takes. They've cut their teeth for long enough - just hit record Randy. Sign these guys up to a seven LP deal, nationwide tour supporting Natural Child or something, they need to whip the crowd up before the bongs come out for the openers.

B-Side's "Pretty Thing" opens on a tortured scream and some distanced serious twang electric. A bad ass harmonica also buried in reverb from Nathan's brother, Spencer. He Blues Brothers in between Nathan's versus while Aaron is banging on some cardboard boxes Doo Rag style. Slapping old beer bottle together this has all that crazy junk blues and soul of One Foot in the Grave. As damaged as those ancient recordings an old demo from a blues obsessed English rock band from the '70s with that swampy Cramps style danger and absurdity to this. The metallic strings ringing out in the same chord while this harmonica takes over, doubling up in multiple tracks. I'm sure this was originaly released on 78 or one of those hard acetates and they found at a garage sale. Thank god they just took the '60s garage band aesthetic and welded it right to an old washboard and it's awesome. Salvation on a two song single. Old tyme religion.

The insert here name drops everyone awesome you also know and love; Nobunny, Shannon, Cococoma, Heavy Times and everyone else who ever put out a record with Randy or partied with these guys - you know who you are. Get this from Randy Records. God Dammit you've done it again Randy.
I hope one day to order quick enough to get my hands on a personalized center label by the man himself.

Todays Hits on Randy Records

Darren first told me about Today's Hits a few moths ago and he wasn't exaggerating. I admired Jay Reatard's work ethic when it came to writing and recording songs but James Swanberg from Kentucky has been posting songs every day for at least the last two years on his bandcamp site. It's not the laid back, smoke weed and play video games attitude this sort of heavy fuzz can have. This is taking your craft and Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 rule seriously. You get the best of both on this single, the experience of working through all sorts of material learning from each one previous and Randy's handpicked favs. I haven't seen anything else on vinyl out there and I could see a subscription series based around James himself. But put all of that aside and listen to these handpicked songs by James and Randy on this Sex Boys EP.

A-side's "Why Can't You" hits that opening chord hard with the sustain to spin this record a few hundred times and then dives into watery reverb depths. There's a layer of age and sheen to this, a gentle patina you wouldn't want to clean off with that sincerity and quietness to draw anybody in with this siren song. What they're going to do once they've got you and deliver track after track of these soothing '50s garage tracks is anyone's guess.
On "Number 4" he's counting down the lady friends in his life by the numbers. Sounds like he had problems with the other ones but number four finally makes sense. Just weird enough to work and still somehow be smart with the laid back and goofy. Mostly this mellow shimmery reverb vibe is what makes you want to keep putting this on.

B-Side's "If Ya Wanna" has warm echoey tremolo vibrating all over the disco ball dance floor. I love this slower Shannon and the C's stuff with this kind of gritty direction. This is actually coming off sweet, like Tony Molina and there's a fun freshness to his approach, like early Ty. Complete joyful desperation and abandoning everything that ever came before. Huge slow bellowing bass not even sticking around enough to put notes together in a melody, lumbering along behind the shimmery electric. Vibrating vocals confident enough to take their time in working this out, it doesn't need to be speedy or harsher to get this kind of La Luz feel. Psychey and sleepy. I also keep thinking this cover not accidentally says 'today shits'. Condoms singing on the back. "Why Baby Why" then goes psych with the amount of delay and reverb blasted on this thing, the slow minor chords start out on a single plane but when this thing gets going it's a Jesus and Mary Chain wall of shrill treble coating everything culminating in a great surfy solo that peeks around this haze and murk. Ghost serenading from decades ago, hushed flashback dreams. The bleeding of notes in the chorus because of these pedals and another gain or two attached boosting that silent weird signal with Crystal Slits levels of reverb and coolness. They're the guys leaning on the back of the wall in that slow dance - too cool to even be there but there they are - what are you gonna do about it.

This guy is writing a million songs, this is the tip of another Ty Segal size iceburg, get you paypal fingers ready.
Fantastic as always from Randy Mother Fucking Records it says on the inner label, which I'm assuming is a division of Randy Records.

Slushy on Randy Records

Randy Records have been after my heart since their Uh Bones single and I've been working my way through the catalog ever since. I know it's way too early to start comparing them to Columbus Discount, Hozac or In The Red but damn this is a helluva start, and I'm super into this duo from Chicago, Slushy. Brent via It's Psychedelic Baby said about the recording - "It was last summer, on an extremely hot day and I was very ill."

A-Side's "Candy" - It figures these two laid back sunglasses types in front of a psych swirl would have laid down slow quivering vibes of echoplex pedal phasered reverb. All the plans they would have made but they're thinking about Candy. Like Hunx they've gone straight back to the gymnasaium and hung out the 'Welcome Home' letters with glitter and slowed down their staple slow dance number to wade through molasses chord changes. They've barely been able to keep up any kind of tempo on this watery jam, but it's clear and grungy that name making more and more sense. A duo of landlocked surfer types who flew forward in time to hypnotize?

B-Side "Pocket" - That A-Side just sounded like a classic tune you could spin over and over and get a little obessed with. This one starts with a tough muted chord strum and picks up to blow out with that heavy echo on the vocal and metallic strum, a broken surf sound trapped in a metal box, a thin aluminum box that's vibrating. There isn't a sound wave that hasn't ended up hitting a solid surface and reflecting off into a hundred of it's own. As super catchy as the A-side, like Wounded Lion or Khan or Nobunny; a fun loving loose sound that professes nothing but good times in a bouncy reverb, harkening back to catching rays and hanging ten. (You bastards. Here comes more snow.)

The washed out inner center label is a nice touch, this thing has been around a while on the dashboard of someone's car before they remembered to bring it in and put it on the turntable. Get yours from Randy. Does he have a subscription club already? Those sweet orange and pink splattered ones are LOOOONG gone.

7INCHES podcast - Episode 11

Get it over on itunes.

Strapping it on for 2014 we get back into the records and talk about that Mar Lannegan box set on Light in the Attic, you guys should hear this guitarist from the '60s named Jimi Hendrix...really great, Ariel Pink's latest single with Jorge Elbrecht on Mexican Summer, dumb vinyl news, Nashvilles’s Dead - Live at Glen Danzig's house, Death Waltz soundtracks, New Flexi Series from Joyous Noise, 3 new ones from Randy Records, and the 1,2,3,4 go record store kickstarter

My pick this week is the Heaven Help The Child split single from Mickey Newbury and Bill Callahan. Darren's pick is a Big Star tribute single with John Davis.

347-770-1469 is the singles message hotline, let us know what you're listening to or anything at all, we aren't jerks, it would be nice to hear from you...really.

Vacation Club on Randy Records

You really have to start to take notice when a brand new label consistently hits the mark with every one of it's releases so far. Randy Records haven't just courted already well established artists either, their roster is completely unknown to me but all their singles so far have turned out to be ripping great scuzzy garage junk-fi releases. This one from Vacation Club has already been heralded by Styrofoam Drone and Tiny Grooves and strapping this thing on the other day is a perfect start to the new year. It's just cutting through that fog of last night to start back in downing cigarette butt glasses of champagne.

Ominous toms pounding right into "Daydream" with a shrill high warped super psych guitar that's blown out into the upper reaches of overdrive. Even better are the harmonized upper register dude vocals all falling into place, like those grungy '60s outsider garages. Big reverb echo's out of the silences but mostly this picks a lane and plows everything else out of the way. Ohhhhh's and oooo's rising out of the background, the logistics of these pop layers are ridiculous. Wired reverse direction phased guitar channelled through an MXR blue box. This loopy head bobbing rhythm fills out the side and becomes a Grass Widow Fresh and Onlys spin the bottle. Super sweet with heavy pop psych warping minds and kaleidoscoping eyes. This stops on a dime and the silence is sad, not to mention the hole left where you're hearing once was. The gaping hole of silence boring into your eardrum. Hooked.

B-Side's "Forest Babe" thankfully fills that hole back up with pounding thin snare hits and jangly guitar sawing back and forth, with a different singer? This is a really upbeat hyper Zoltars sound with heavy reverb on the vocal finding the rhythm. Jagged butt slide down the stairs of chords, hitting your coccyx every one. The rest of the band comes in behind this solid melody foundation waking up to a landslide.

Go pick up this classic black and white sleeve, black vinyl release from Randy Records. No gimmicks. Just scarily consistently great music.

Uh Bones on Randy Records

There's a few strains of garage rock; there's a hyped up punk garage crash, exploding with energy, blowing up as fast as possible and there's a crazy surf garage mutation lit by tiki torches while Dracula drives one of those hot rods and then there's a laid back, not trying to hard, with a sense of humor almost stoner garage. Chicago's Uh Bones seem to fit into that last one not taking anything too seriously except the perfect delivery of no-fi hazy jams.

A-Side's "Only You" is a stomping ramshackle country shitkicker with distorted vocals at a standard drunken garage tempo in a particularly jumping groove. It suddenly gets a lot more dense with drum fills blasting through this organ in a real scuzzy Ty Segall scratchy blues. The jangly treble sends massive chunks flying when the rest of the band gets behind that energy from Luke. These guys hang out with Matthew Melton, they've really seen some shit, they aren't just playing the part. I like this harmlnica solo, it's taking me back to those rowdy days of early Rolling Stones when they might as well have been real greasy creeps, and why it made sense for them to pull ahead of the Beatles and holding hands.
"He's got it" tones down the treble electric with some warmth while jacking up the echo and pulling back distortion. Luke is quietly delivering this junkyard melody with a slower backbeat and humming bass line. These guys put together southern comfort and smooth Zombies style psych pop. Just a trio in the basement recording to thick magnetic tape. It's crackling and peaking out in the higher ranges on that razors edge of blowing it through the red. They don't seem overly trying to impress, slowing down so the organ solo can cruise through like a slow motion muscle car pulling into the school parking lot. A real Natural Child vibe here, they might smoke a little less crack, but are equally mellow and directionless. They go with whatever happens to come out of those speakers, throwback sounds in the way Hot Lunch was capturing that specific place and time better than the people that were there.
B-Side's "A Mess" is slow enough to hear every string and they have that thick rhythm section down throwing tambourine in this time. A Silver Shampoo biker soundtrack grooving along with the best singing distortion taking real time to draw this out appropriately. The bass runs scales through the chorus staying pretty laid back, even with backup singers and high harmonies. Sharp bubbly effects on the solo drawing on West Coast psych on this one as well. I can't even think of contemporaries that are working this closely in damn near perfection. Look at the greats, Useless Eaters , Jeff Novak, Ty, Mikal, Jacuzzi Boys, Wounded Lion - it's all here with a dash of Tim Cohen thrown in.
"Bait" takes a single note melody and Farfisa organ in a new pop direction. Luke has a tight spring reverb as this rides down a midnight highway again. Everything is blurry and black and white with a '60s freakout feel but mostly they want to get these harmonies going. These guys must have an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre like The Marble Vanity to perfectly nail this sound. I love that this messed up homemade hissy reverb sound keeps sticking around being relevant thanks to bands like this.

Get it from Randy Records, they're focused on this sound like Infinity Cat.

Dead Ghosts on Randy Records

It’s a terrible idea to generalize but Canada has been killing it lately with their variation on garage psych from bands lately like The Ketamines, Needles//Pins, The Famines and Fist City. It’s a big place but this feels like more than just coincidence of a particular sound. I’m not ready to defend this fundamental garage theory just yet, but I can tell you that the four piece, Dead Ghosts, from Vancouver will have something to do with it.

"I sleep alone" takes that jangle and big time echo and jams it right up their ramshackle groove, barely held together with slide guitar and bleeding up into the needle reverb. It’s a kind of beautiful, weird sculpture in someone’s yard made by the local oddball who’s been tinkering his whole life welding scrap together. It doesn’t belong in a museum because that would ruin how perfect it is. It belongs in this yard with grass growing all around it. Dead Ghosts made their own raw hulking metal monstrosity, brightly colored and half tipping over in the side yard. It looks great and feels like a messily honest tribute to everything beautiful in the world. An organ solo pops in like the icing on the cake. Pile it all on. They've got a loner quality, a sort of bubblegum '50s garage combined with The Beets loose rawk. A somber affair and he’s not yelling - this is a beaten kind of blues jangle that you feel good about because it’s got something of a sad quality and we're also giving in to this cagey sound.
"Spot a trend" on the B-Side has that Ty reverb, clear, tight and thin right through a telephone wire overall a little spicier on this side. A harsher bad-trip vibe, the guitar has more attitude and this yelling vocal is buried under a similar thin distortion. These guys are out for blood now, happy to be a little more misunderstood, either at the end of a binge or at the beginning before they get too sedated. Plastic drums and a few chord changes but it isn’t even about that. It just it has to hit all of the thinner sounding rasps, with an out of tune solo. Its got nothing to do with punk except having the same DIY, throw-yourself-into-it spirit.

Get this from Randy Records. Full length is out on Burger Records by the way - home to every cassette you ever wanted by Hunx, Shannon, Natural Child, King Tuff...you name it.