Adam Widener "Gimmee Gimmee Scientific Stuff" EP on Sexy Baby Records

If there was an awards show for overall garage pop rock MVP, a real one man show from beginning to end I would open the nominations with Adam Widener. Adam not only plays every instrument on all of his singles and has toured with Bare Wires but designs some really impressive packaging including this 3D single. You know those old school 3D glasses? Well, what if you pressed the record with those exact split colors so the record was the glasses to look through at the 3D sleeve! Such a great idea and I think we talked about the early inceptions of the idea back about a year ago. Amazing to see this actually happened and couldn’t wait to throw this one on the turntable.

A-Side "Death Kontrol" marks Adam’s return with another round of fiery power pop, crisp as hell, the jerky chords bobbing and weaving. Heavy hitting rapid fire machine gun snare and kick all in perfect time with his power pop Elvis Costello, Jeff Novak vocal that hints at snotty glam punk roots. Completely precise in perfectly square cut blocks that somehow feel a little bit out of control in speed and this flavor of sour berry bubblegum. A super surf sound, reverb and riding up the chord scales on the guitar, a nervous energy that feels like the tape or studio time is about to run out any second. You got one shot kid, make it count. "Lets Talk About Punk" has a crazy tight delay on the vocals; lots of psych sounding harmonies on this one delivered at hyper speed. The loose, raw psych feel is almost lost in favor of a tight, glam sound. Restless surf with high hat and kick off beat, talking to himself as two sides of a telephone call about punk records! I love that Adam just picks that kind of throwaway sentiment and runs with it. The kind of things the most memorable tracks are made of. We like punk records. Lets talk!

B-Side's “Gimmee Gimmee Scientific Stuff" has bursts of reverse delay guitar?! Adam has such great guitar tones on this record as usual with even a hint of synth or glitch electronics happening here. He’s a real complex player, which is reflected vocally in this speedy delivery riding the crest of this two-step punk. The guitar is angular to the point of new wave especially when talking about “science stuff / the elements”. It’s a perfect downed electric wire, dangerous, punchy and changing direction on a dime. Adam included a nice note about this single being more produced than his last record, which came together in a hotel room, but honestly this is as impressive as the last. Don't try to temper expectations! We all knew this was going to be great and we've been waiting months to hear this thing! The final track, "Oxygen Tank Oil Drum" lays distortion on thick over the vocal with staccato guitar in a jumpy, Devo sound for the final cut on this schizophrenic punk dance party.

The split colors on this genius idea are a little too opaque to quite work, but I tried some damn powerful lighting and you get the idea. Has to be the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone even attempting this, and it’s the kind of genius that comes through in all of these tracks as well.

Pick this up from Sexy Baby Records. Full length from Adam in the works!

Adam Widener - Make Out EP on Fuzz City

Finally got around to writing up Adam's latest single, Make Out!, recorded by Matthew Melton and out on his own Fuzz City label, this is the one we talked about him recording back on my interview with Adam and it's been on heavy rotation for a while now. It's easy to hear why when Matthew was recording this he snapped these up for Fuzz City. When you see a track listing like this on a single, everything running under two minutes, it's a solid guarantee that it's going to be quick pop burst and what you're left with is that gleaming scattered pop trash on that cover. It's fast and dirty, plug in that broken tascam, tape a broken mic to the front of that amp and climb on top of that trash pile...it's time to rock!
A-Side's "Groovy Intuition" kicks out a gritty, thin distortion riff that counts right into a heavy pop verse, Adam has this great garage vocal that ranges from a snarling all attitude delivery to utterly sweet harmonic chorus. The stomp beat drums and twangy guitar in yes, a groovy garage vein. I swear I'm hearing a '60s organ keeping up with this main melody, but don't see it listed on the back. A great moment of beating the strings right into the pickups for clicky rhythm. An equally hyper underground sound as Ty Segall, but minus that big blues squealing influence. Adam's mining the ancient bubblegum pop punk sounds and playing everything on this record entirely himself. A completely amazing feat, able to keep these changes as tight and breakneck as they are.
"Make Out!" has another great cycling harsh guitar tone that explodes right into a Reatard style english punk heavy on the snooty vocal reverb, tightly wound, all those pieces in place. The drop out to nothing slowly piles up the instrumentation back into the punk with metallic reverb hooting and howling.
B-Side starts with "Enemy Dreams", a more punk referencing number at first with it's driving muted string locomotive sound, eventually making way for this jittery as always punchy chorus. You can hear why he would be the perfect choice to tour with Bare Wires, the bundled up energy and punch is all captured here, and it's a shame there's no where to catch this live yet. Same goes for "Slime Walker" and his great high tension guitar tone, he's got that reverb on the whoo!'s in between the fast and loose verses. There's no such thing as a fade out on these tracks, there isn't time, and he's got to move on.
"Make Believe Emergencies" could even be traced back to that Kinks garage sound, Adam's got a natural talent at unique catchy choruses and editing an impulse to keep them repeating. Less is more here and it's a whirlwind of pop punk refined down to the essential elements. Like a brand new batch of moonshine, you don't even give it time to age, it's burning all the way down and man are you going to be messed up when it's over.

Get it on Fuzz City who says:
With an enduring pop sensibility and gripping urgency, Oakland’s Adam Widener has crafted an arresting 5-song collection that was honed in the garage, but conceived in the cosmos. Formerly of The Zygoteens and Bare Wires, these latest recordings portray a seasoned player settling in to his most fully realized work yet.

Podcast interview with Adam Widener

I got a chance to talk to Adam Widener after he sent me his single on Big Action Records, we got to emailing back and forth about his zine, Plastique Pop. He sent me his latest on Fuzz City (will post about that soon) and told me he toured with Bare Wires, one of my all time favorite bands, so I had to hear about touring with those guys and the recording of his latest.

Adam sent me a couple of unreleased tracks to include "One Foot in Front of the Other" plays first and later when he talks about how it came into being as well as "Babe, Don't Feel Blue" around the 22 minute mark.

We get into how he got hooked up with Big Action Records, his crazy awesome insert and the Zygoteens split with the hussy and the video shoot ay Coney island for "Groovy Intuitions" embedded below.

Right click to download here, 27mb.

Adam Widener on Big Action Records

This single came in from Adam himself, who sent along a great old zine of his, Plastique Pop which was done kind of recently and I got a little nostalgic for the old xeroxed 20 page diaries from all over the country and if a single or live show was mentioned, it was the best thing ever and purchased immediately. Adam's mag was super professional and had some pretty awesome interviews with bands I know now, but that he was covering years ago. You need to know he's got this kind of extensive music background before putting this single on.

A-Sides "Crime in the City" does this awesome thing I'm jealous of... I'm listening to the sound of a record needle being dropped onto a record. But wait...I just did that? It's maddening and genius, really hilarious actually. You can tell right away from PP this guy is seriously dedicated to the entire scene, to all the people around him, encouraging them, putting out their stuff... a lot like Paul from Mammoth Cave or Bobby from Kind Turkey. Their dedication runs deep and it's the kind of support that's across the board awesome. They will get a piece of my future lottery money winnings to press singles forever. This is a legally binding statement, I am of sound mind and body.

So one day Adam gets to recording and finds Big Action to release this, with exposure to the entire scene he's influenced by a ton of poppy punk with lots of vocal hooks, from the very beginning this thing has a lot of tunes to prove...or maybe finally get out. They've been building up into these punchy, frantic one man tunes, it's all boiling over,
"Lowest Common Denominator Rock" next is coming off like a stuttered Devo, kind of manic, forced sound. Awkward as hell, weird effects on the bass or guitar sounding like synth. Great just echo'd enough vocals. Consolidating and distilling down all of that pop rock harder stuff, everything played by Adam, which I still find impressive. To keep this kind of manic weirdo energy when it's just you laying down track after track. You have to be completely committed to this stuff with no hesitation but still be excited about it. I can see this impressive work ethic that's bound to get him somewhere in whatever direction he chooses. Did Jay Reatard just write all those tracks on Blood Visions right out of the gate? No way...frankly that's why I admire him more. He worked the shit out a hundred bands and toured incessantly, not that just that's going to get you anywhere either...but it won't make this just a right place in the right time situation. He's been preparing, and it's just taken everyone long enough to notice.
Side W has "Cola Kids Hanging out in the Bubble Dome" the weirdest pop song, the stuttery quality of this is catching up to him in an interesting way. It's sort of a caged surf sound, like a new demo button on a casio, there's a layer of this real structured methodolgy to this '50s feel going off the rails in a robotic way. Turning Japanese? "ccmmykk" has this instrumental feel at the beginning and then bursts into this title chorus which is about those colors on the printer, the mechanical Mr Roboto sound going on about such a crazy subject. It's the kind of idiosyncratic stuff like this right out of the gate that is further proof this sort of thing has been slowly building, he's been absorbing it all for years and it's coming out miles ahead of where it should be.

Great insert in an almost Chris Ware style about playing the record, and registering the record... and caring for the record. I'm a sucker for all of the nerdy ephemera surrounding vinyl. I have record player dish towels. I don't give a shit! I like em.

It also mentions this was recorded at a Hollywood Inn Express? This might be the name of a studio but I'm hoping it was a hotel room somewhere in LA. That about sums this up. A weird message in a bottle. Finding someone's stack of personal photos in the gutter.. a lot of specifics are missing but there's a big story here.

Get it from Big Action Records, sample below.