Bad Daddies on Negative Fun Records - singles club

I just realized Bad Daddies are from Northern California which I wouldn't normally associate with experimental speed punk. What am I talking about? Fast is self explanatory, they routinely manage to jam at least three songs per side but I've been noticing some new elements creeping into their tracks on their latest from the Negative Fun single club. I swear I'm hearing synth in the back of one of these tracks melting down and glitching into digital soup but the way they're playing feedback they have to finally admit they're more than just accidentally standing in front of the amps again.

A-Side's "You Ain't Right" plows in with boosted shimmery frequency cymbals and a guitar distortion that has gaping holes in it, you can see right through this gurgling crunch. Camylle has a hefty delay echo on her vocal as well as they wrangle feedback into some kind of squealing solo, between the hot crackle, using a high hat like a snare. Impossible to lose Camylle in any of these mixes, this thing grows faster and faster pushing their limits, with one last yell from the depths of this punk chasm of "You Ain't Right!" and the beat ends letting the sweet sound of feedback collapse in on itself. One song on a whole side? What are they in their psych period? Is this a Phish cover?

B-Side's "Teenage Hell" has feedback already in progress. I hope these guys wear earplugs so they can still hear the sweet voices of their babies someday. Camylle has an upper register delivery that pierces right through the middle range of this. A weird electronics freakout happens throughout that turns into a single barely audible note that runs right into "I Don't", sounds like they're putting this side together live and create a massive thick noise as soon as they count in with the sticks. Tight and concise, it's bitter agressive stuff thats near breaking guitars. "Head on a rail" uses more feedback labeling them experimental in my book, much thicker low end on this one, and a real brief attack of a melody. I don't know what came over them.

Negative Fun has the entire singles series and can tell you more.

Lögnhalsmottagningen / Bad Daddies Split 7" on Emotional Response Records,

I appreciate the Bad Daddies sending this split my way after covering their great Bad Year EP a while back but a couple of things that are blowing my mind is that Emotional Response Records is Jen Turrell and her husband Stewart Anderson from Boyracer. I know of Jen through a six volume seven inch series she did back in 2000 called The Way Things Change. I must have emailed her at some point because I remember hearing this came in some sort of case or hand screened canvas bag or something and she said they were long sold out but I ordered the whole series because of the number of great artists involved, The Microphones, The Softies, Mirah, Jen and Boyracer of course and Calvin Johnston to name a few. According to Discogs she's also the daughter of James Turrell the artist who created an observatory out of a crater near Flagstaff Arizona. The world gets smaller, but what does the single sound like?

Well the A-Side is from Lognhalsmottagningen (you bet I have to cut and paste that every time) a duo? of Stewart (from the label) from Flagstaff and Martin from Gothenburg, Sweden who get all fired up on three tracks this side. "Btt strategiskt vakuum" opens right into feedback alternating between snare hits before opening up into bigger riffs. I have to appreciate doing this in Swedish after all why wouldn't we want to hear what those guys were up to over there in their native language. People complain how ignorant Americans are for not learning any other languages and now you can start singing along to this at least. Constantly changing super fast punk and honestly if you told me this was in English I might not even really notice, sometimes those lyrics you make up when you're half paying attention are even better. Oh stupid American.
"Det ar val bra som det ar" handclaps and a bass line? There must be a few more members on this track, the lyric follows that hyper bass and they always manage a catchy melody in the midst of this chaos that seems perfectly suited to be lost in translation. It's reminding me of The Descendents or DRI, pushing speed and content above anything else. Bashes from cymbals and strings. "I nypressad folkdrakt och med tvattad hals" opens on feedback, I mean if you have this stuff turned up because it's going to be loud that hearing damage is what you're going to get. A guitar melody actually take shape between verses and the chorus becomes a weird version of rawhide. The vocals barely have room to finish each sentence and their off again trying to do more damage somewhere else. Worth getting into. I'd love to see a translation of this lyric sheet, it looks like they have a lot to say or else that's just the way Swedish is.

The B-Side from Bad Daddies manages one more track for four starting with "Dessert" the vocals sounding harsher than I remember, really damaging the throat and that bass is pushing things way into the red. The brief stabs I can catch are sharp and they left before I could even find out what they wanted. "The Flood" tight snare roll versus this random electric jagged track, the yelling is nicely pushed in the back in the perfect upset volume. Love the lack of distortion here, they manage to get away with this punk sound no matter what effects are running through the amps, really like this one, that punk energy and minimal jangle with the pounding kit. So weird it isn't punk which means it is. "Spare Change" feedback and heavy snare, the thicker distortions here are squealing which seems to fire up the vocal in that MOM AND DAD I"M IN JAIL way. Taking out the trash at the speed of double nickels on a dime. Low layered squelches are just as important as the rapid fire bursts they deliver. "Bad Year" has the dirtiest guitar and Camylle (?) does a brief Kim Deal sounding melody behind the huge riffs that come together in a really pop way, I don't know why that seems surprising but this one should be on repeat if you can find that narrow band on the vinyl which means you should go replay the whole thing, but what teases! You can't even repeat anything? it makes me feel stupid I can hardly get into it. Throw in my goldfish memory and I already forgot how it goes.

Get this from Emotional Response Records on random colors. I got a greyish one from The Daddies (thanks ladies and gents).

Bad Daddies "Bad Year EP" on Central District Records

Historically the seven inch format was probably kept alive in the '80s by the punk rock EP. It could be pressed for a lot less than an entire album, you could easily xerox a black and white sleeve as you needed them and with the brevity of the genre's tracks it especially didn't make sense to have a twelve inch with two hundred songs on it. It was even great for the audience who could pick up a single at a show for a few bucks to see how their stuff translated in the studio. The Bad Daddies out of Northern California released this six track EP in that ongoing tradition of DIY and minute long tracks that

A-Side's "Dominique Strauss-Kahn" starts out with shrieking feedback and massive thuds from a rehearsal space room, this is exactly the kind of way this track should be delivered about that scumbag, fast and furious.
"Regress" - more feedback to differentiate the tracks and Camylle on vocals has me thinking about Kathleen Hanna and if riot grrrl is a dirty word today but I still think there are some of the same issues still. Camylle is quick and precise jutting into those spaces these guitars are leaving behind. This track even has time for a solo or bass line groove for a minute, weird and warm. More of a melodic punk, the pieces are falling together, not apart.
A bass line from Rachel opens "To the Limits" with shrill distortion. More feedback when this pauses, like the Minutemen they have a compact statement, this is how this one goes and it's simple, one verse - done. Move on next track. That bass leads to a harsh guttural distortion and slappy drums with a live practice room space sound with direct line in guitar, the only way to DIY. A weird rhythm structure here that isn't the usual hardcore.
On "Short Sale" Camylle is close up in that mic blowing it out a little front and center in this mix, yelling herself hoarse, like White Lung or Mika Miko. The rougher sounding stuff driven by emotion and that reaction to something. "This Is How It Ends" has a rough lower end guitar and the bass is even thick on this one with a balanced sound here that goes pop punk, the best track on the side for me because it's easily catchy bursts of punk.

B-Side's "If I Gave You A Party" this smooth groove fades in and Matt is getting into the melody of this at first then getting rowdy with the guitars blowing out in this cover of Sexual Harrassment's track. Sighing because it's obvious that this party is taking a lot out of them. Sounds like it would be frustrating organizing all of that attention and then it's a massive disappointment and frustration. Even more that last word might have a double meaning in the way it's delivered here. I appreciate they took a minute to cover a track from someone else I'm going to have to check out getting into their range of actual punk feelings.

Tons of inserts and tiny stickers, a great package with a lot of detailed elements just like these tracks. Not rushed out blastcore, they have a brief message and get it out. Why take the sentiment about a french IMF rapist and draw it out into a 6 minutes when you can cut him off at the knees like this right away. On Central District Records or their bandcamp page.