Church Bats on Windian Records subscription series #3

Todd from Brooklyn's Church Bats was friends with Windian Records founder Travis Jackson before his passing early last year. They had always talked about putting a single out on the label so when the torch was passed to Eric Brady he included their latest as part of their ongoing subscription series. Windian has always felt like a label with a real clear direction when it comes to releasing contemporary punk garage bands and revisiting a lot of incredible forgotten singles thanks to Travis. The Church Bats are in good company and had the direct blessing from Travis himself. Since that tragedy, Todd has stepped up the bands efforts in remembrance of their friend and Travis' influence and spirit continues on now in Windian as well as The Church Bats.

A-Side's "Foreign Land" opens with a measure of jangly brittle riffs before the heavy hulk beat breaks in, Shingo is attempting to bash a hole right through the skins with a serious part of the budget set aside for for drum repair. Todd uses a doubled up vocal and what sounds like multiple guitars speeding through big fist changes, waiting for a measure so the huge solo can scream in over wrists firing in a snarly Blues Explosion sound. Riding the frequency right into the edge of the hissy peaks, boost the treble and mic a tweeter back through the board. It's full of static and crackle rushing this punk to the end in case somebody pulls the plug. It's always hard to capture this sort of spontaneous high energy sound like their coming right out of the speakers, playing directly in the room, but they nailed it.
B-Side's "Half Man, Half Shellfish" slowly wrings out this riff, twisting the neck between two chords in a meandering ocean roll. Slight shift up the register in that traditional blues scale. Dirty and crunchy sounding, it's all about how you bend your knees on this one. Turning out to be an instrumental that refuses to speed up in any way, trudging through molasses at night, the sun is going down and all kinds of animals are coming out for dinner. Bring out the broken bottle neck slide and make those strings squeal working it's way into a sewer surf sound with more gutteral distortion than reverb but this is that mix of spilled beer and alcohol that seeps into the wood bar. It can not be manufactured.

Get it from Windian. Have you even been paying attention?

Platinum Boys on the Windian Records subscription series #3

It's hard to listen to a track that mentions anything about a girl being 18. It immediately can come off as being old dirty creep music reminding me of Poison or really most of the overindulgent hair metal '80s. It's funny now but I don't think those guys had a sense of humor. Five seconds of The Decline of Western Civilization part II is evidence for any midwestern parents. It is still possible to do it like The Platinum Boys who, like Matthew Melton or Natural Child can reference those long hair days of the '70s in a half serious way or better yet like in this track have the girl mentioned not turn out to be some sort of object but a real bad ass.

A-Side's "Candy" opens on a scuzzy blues soul riff bending it's way into the first few seconds that quickly gets whipped into shape having been mined right out of the classic '70s southern rock sound. They take the elements of rock they know, the raw instruments that don't need anything but a loud as hell amp and all the things that have stayed classic. Take those two guitars and bass and drums and do what they were always meant to do. The exact kind of windows down, endless desert miles between tiny bars sound with the entire band singing together like that god damn Allman Brothers. A little bit of a glam rock if glam rose out of the backwoods bar circuit, strictly beer in a can, trucking patches and ripped jean jackets. A trailer park glam sound because they have this sound buttoned up and settle into this massive groove right away riding it down the highway. They're from Milwaukee? This isn't some kind of hilarious put on, they live in those sleeveless T's because they're fucking comfortable.
B-Side's "Wild Child" fades into feedback and some harder living chords, slowly laying things out there for that second guitar to pile on a wailing solo. Coming off like a rowdier bluesy Dead Meadow those drums drop in to help speed things up for the vocal buried out in the backyard of this gritty chord fueled bull. Big room sound on that snare which they highlight by dropping down to nothing for a throaty guitar drop they can't help but repeating. Some of the thickest guitars known to man, drowning everything else out, turned up feels pretty damn good. Bring an amp to the cabin in the woods for this one. When that lyric fades off into the sunset these two guitars pick things up for a Fucking Champs southern synth meltdown sound that has me searching for that full length.

Even if you can't pick up this whole series or cherry pick this record listen to the track below, ballsy american rock at it's best. Full length (which should be purchased based on the cover alone) is SOLD OUT from the boys, but Dusty Medical still has some.

The Goochi Boiz double EP on Windian Records

This posthumus double EP from The Goochi Boiz may be their final vinyl document. Turns out the three dudes that recorded both sides of this at different times four years ago have since moved on to different cities and projects. Windian has put together the ultimate tribute with two separate EP's separated by a year on both sides. Moving chronologically start with the "'Oops!" side recorded in Oakland in 2011 released on Burger Records and then move on to 2012's "Fast Food for a Teenage Soul" recorded in one week in Brattleboro, VT where band member Francis Carr is also a part of The Happy Jawbone Family Band which in retrospect is going to explain a lot.

This is the schizophrenic record of a close friendship that resulted in manic burst of creativity. A rare thing when it results in something as enjoyably goofy and pop as this. They experiment every other track, moving from hyper garage to laid back, ramshackle sludge pop. You could imagine the roller coaster of these frantic sessions everything coming together at once, hardly able to sleep afraid you might lose something forever.

The 'oops! side recorded in Oakland (while the neighbors got more and more annoyed, the liner notes say) starts with "Gimme What I want" and a rough chord structure with a great vocal from the Boiz singing as deep as possible alongside a high falsetto. If it weren't for this oddball vocal you might mistake this for a serious deep groove taken from southern '70s rock. "Freak Magnet" brings things into a '60s garage and chord structure if you blasted it through a broken PA from a block away. This pace brings something to the sound, the vocals are one take and the scuzzy pedal is all bass like a slow grinding underwater drill. "Boca Italia" must be the track those neighbors were complaining about. They couldn't be recording a hit record? How they could capture this racket? The lows are just as fuzzy as these highs, singing in a snotty monotone with always great lyrics, completely loose and free with a tight Matthew Melton pop structure, never longer than it should be. "Bummer in the Summer" like Sebadoh or The Jacuzzi Boys this could all fall apart any second. It's the sound of saying "fuck it" and managing to get that good take in spite of themselves. "Banana Split" gets into obnoxious "wooooooo's" as high as possible with a wink. They know this is ridiculous and they'll have the best time doing it at the loudest volume they can manage to jam into the tape. I'll take this attitude over the self serious punk world where everything sucks and we're going to kick your ass because you're straight edge or not whatever the fuck. It feels like the garage equivalent of The Unicorns, writing catchy half hilarious tracks that have a sense of humor. "Flashflood" gets instrumental with a slow ominous baseline, until they yell "FLASHFLOOD!" and it's the perfect sort of example I'm talking about, completely silly and awesome. They aren't afraid to be goofy and almost make you have a great time listening to it. So many tracks, you can't even absorb the last thing before you're spinning to the next. They doom themselves to a certain kind of failure because they make a record this goofy. These guys don't have the self promotion or business sense to push themselves on the world because if they did they wouldn't be able to create this. "oh yea /oh yea /oh yea / big hole!" your guess is as good as mine. "This guns for hire" - the sound of a gunshot fires into loud scuzz and there's a lot of Jay Reatard in here too, at least the Blood Visions stuff which was raw around the edges, plowed into a tascam on their own, an equal scream into the void when maybe no one is listening - you can get a sound like this. "Shroud of night" wraps up this fantastic collection only to be topped by the second side where the goof spreads into a few more genres beyond this Nobunny shine.

The Fast Food for a Teenage Soul side opens with "Dilettante" with bouncy handclap induced energy that sounds like it's spinning fast even though it's most definitely on 33. This sprints like Hunx and the Punx tapping into extreme bubblegum snot. It's a perfect sound for this character, exactly how she would want her song, shiny and sweet vomit. The Goochi Boiz are taking their mix seriously with this punchy chorus, stirring up a real muddy mess and the stage is the only thing to tear them away from this party. "Vietnam" is classic fast Ramones, sounding like a cover with fast ripping chords and explosion samples and the band screaming in pain - a direction those forest hills punks would never go being a little too serious and awkward sometimes. They wrangled some massive kettle drums on "Why You Gotta be Mean to Me?" or it's the biggest tuned down tom with slow drone lyrics. Like a Randy Records release, the band's all singing in the background having had a few too many by the end of this session and the beat can barely keep it together in the best way. It's the sound of the middle of the afternoon in summer and its too hot to move. Don't forget the tiniest toy piano solo that says "Time is going by too fast" and why you gotta be so damn serious everywhere else in your damn life? "You're Melting" is drumming with pieces of cardboard with crazy energy again because they can't stick to a formula, changing minute to minute. They do keep coming back to this spazzy snotty harmony sound as soon as they get into a downer junk blues track like "Everything I do is Wrong". Like one of those sloppy songs on One Foot in The Grave they're ok with putting these tracks under a microscope and giving you a tiny middle finger. "Stewin in my Juices" has a great pop punk feel and I'm starting to think of this record like some kind of alternate reality Pure Guava. It's got all the same kind of weird collaborative qualities and inside jokes and bonkers sounds like the ones in this piece after the chorus; a siren of synth and broken electronics. "Neon Brain Splatter" is another one of those monotone punk tracks played by people who have some idea of punk but miss the entire target in their own deliberate way with everything landing on the beat like a trio of frankensteins. I think the track "Dill Pickles" is a sped up recording of the Who or some other washed up dad rock in the way that it says we're moving on old man. Kill your idols. This is what your rock sounds like totally ruined. "Something's Missing" gets back to the frantic proceedings with great lyrics, the whole band singing, in and out of harmony, the guitars racing, almost stumbling over the cymbal crashes and barely keeping up with itself. An amazing snapshot that deserves revisiting over and over, the reach of material covered here shouldn't even be attempted and rarely comes together like this.

Get it from Windian Records, who says:

A THREE-PIECE ORIGINALLY FROM BOULDER, CO FEATURING MEMBERS OF THE HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY BAND, THEE GOOCHI BOIZ WERE WELL KNOWN FOR THEIR FRANTIC & FRENETIC LIVE SHOWS. WHILE SADLY ON AN INDEFINITE HIATUS AFTER TREVVOR, THOMAS AND FRANCIS MOVED ON TO OTHER PROJECTS AND LOCATIONS, WINDIAN RECORDS WON'T LET THAT STOP YOU FROM ENJOYING THESE REMASTERED TRACKS AVAILABLE ON OUR FAVORITE FORMAT FOR THE FIRST TIME .

DD Owen from the Windian Records Subscription Series

I could always respect that Jay Reatard went and collaborated with all kinds of people and projects. Lost Sounds or Terror Visions reminded me that it doesn't matter what you're using, punk is punk and it's good to get out of your comfort zone and experiment with whatever someone has lying around. Drew Owen from Sick Thoughts has gone and found an ancient drum machine to lay out more of his layers and layers of blown out guitar tones bedroom punk.

A-Side's "Violent Pacifier" has some psych phasered mechanical drums with layers of scuzzy guitar sweeping across the channels. This has all the best kind of noise smothering this track like the classic punk synth of Digital Leather, it's got just enough melting electronics to lean away from traditional punk. But that's what this is all about; twisting knobs and making a great pounding mess of delay and buried guitars, screaming that title lyric in some kind of chorus. Cut wide for maximum volume, it's a quick track of power sludge that plays with metal solos and feedback over that metronome casio beat. Cuts off just like the cassette it was recorded on.
The B-Side is a cover of Gary Wrong's "Setting Fire to Your Loft" where DD keeps the creepiness of the original and ramps up the tempo with this shifting in and out of focus boombox beat. He cuts right to the heart of what made this original track so crazy and gets damaged like the vocal from Blank Dogs. The guitars are a dense muddy sludge of bass heavy frequencies but he layers in some high cranky static guitar just turning the instrument into every possible tool for this horror psych production. I like that Drew is single minded and going for it with whatever he's got, fidelity be damned. It can still work when it's not about a label.

Get this freaking box set already - from Windian Records.

The Seeers on the Windian Records subscription series

I missed Rob Ulsh's latest project The Seeers when they passed through Brooklyn maybe a year ago now and just realized now that this single in the Windian subscription series is their first release. I knew Rob from his last project, The Super Vacations and before I even made that connection (because I'm slow - and sort of deaf apparently) I had thought about the connections between the two.

A-Side's "Without Lites" has a lot in common with The Vacations stuff, and for my money this is a change in name only, Rob and Ross are still nailing that smooth layered psych vocal delivery the only way they know how. I recognize the chorus phrasing right away and that's a testament to their unique songwriting in this garage psych sound. They hit on this hyper dense seasoned sound with the vocals just floating by themselves above the rough chords just like they used to. Maybe a little bit more emphasis on the distortion tones and tempo that's flying in contrast to the somewhat laid back vocal delivery. Unlike psych this one has only a couple of minutes to bang it out.
B-Side's "In Jail, In my Mind, on a Prison Planet" comes on heavier than that A-Side and Rob is still up there in that tower in the clouds barely straining over these rougher power chords. It's like they take all of that meandering jam sound and jangle and compact it down into a frantic minute and a half. The guitars even twist into springy reverb for a measure of outer space solo only to be crushed back down by a punk blast of that chorus. I love what these guys have been up to whatever they're called.

This is the only thing The Seeers have out as of right now and you can even pick this up if alone if you can't spring for the whole set, with sleeve or not, Windian will give it to you.

The Penetrators on Windian Records

1982. There was a little band releasing some pretty great punk/new wave stuff from Syracuse called The Penetrators. I thought at first writing 'Syracuse New Wave!' on the back of their singles was a joke, maybe making fun of Flock of Seagulls or the advent of synths in everything, the opposite of their raw, sleazy garage they were playing from but this A-Side really combines that cranky production quality with a weirdo punk Devo sound that is actually the good stuff you would call new wave. Weird and fun, perfect for MTV, who they submitted a video to for this song and even include the rejection letter as the insert. Oh what could have been.

A-Side's "Shopping Bag" opens on a heavy crackling riff broken down into raw single note melody that Jack follows with his sneering vocal sliding in right behind these notes. That chorus that jumps in barely a verse later is the best, perfect '80s attitude, being on the outside looking in. That melody follows nothing but more importantly is the slappy paper bag snare that almost comes off as a cheapo drum machine perfect sounding drenched in treble. The video is priceless and captures that punk rejection of the rampant consumerism that was the order of the day in that era of Regan. This version sounds different than the video track though. A fuzzy garage solo between this chorus of Shopping bag / Shop / ping Bag / live your life in a is beyond perfect. You know they're goofing on this in a pop way that almost fits who they're talking about. Making anti-music for those consumers. If this was played even for a week on MTV that would have been the best biting the hand scenario.
B-Side's "Everybody Needs Lovin'" is more of their now goofy punk with what must be a heavy influence of the '80s at work, the vocals selling this sleezy character after the ladies. Another expert single note melody for a perfect pairing with that A-Side. You can't help but laugh with this weirdness but they actually are more than competent performers which just confuses things further...were these guys playing the shitty punk spots in Syracuse or pulling the wool over some eyes at the New wave spots? Both? I thought I liked them before, but this one is exactly the place you should have ended up in the early eighties.

Get this reimagined reissue, since it never actually came out once they spent all their money on that video(?)- from Windian Records.

The Hussy on Windian Records

Old friends to 7inches, Bobby and Heather of The Hussy are back with a single on Windian of course that has young Keith Richards shedding psychedelic tears for the thundery scuzzy sounds that, at this point, The Hussy have been honing in on for the last NINE YEARS! Countless pedals and guitars have been set on fire, drum heads broken, van engines ruined and floors slept on but that tour with Nobunny must have made it all worth while. These guys just keep getting better and better finally bringing one member of the Rolling Stones to tears.

A-Side's "EZ/PZ" I swore might have been from one of their full lengths but I don't recognize this tight Heather fronted track showcasing major range not just in bad ass energy but singing chops as well. Bobby in supporting position is left to completely destroy this distortion and riffs reminding me of some rough Home Blitz type of garage blues cutting right down the middle. They can't help but nurture those sweet starts and stops with instincts that they've continued to blindly follow. It's all heart on display, make it all louder and faster, you can't stop to think things out just try to hang on. Still amazed these two are playing together after all these years and the sound continues to evolve as they both keep this sweaty two minute punk pop marriage together.
B-Side's "Hey Jude Pts. 2 & 3" has a real crisp four chord riff with Bobby and Heather yelling right over each other in that perfect unison, the kind they can pull off at every show, delivering "OH MY GOD" a hundred different ways. This is one of those opening tracks that I know I must have caught live, the kind of thing that makes eveyone head to the stage. Some juicy tape warble bleeds right into a super bubblegummy Hunx/Shannon sounding low tempo number of Heather's while Bobby 'whooooo ooooo ooo's' in the background and jams out just a slight bit of surf over his epic sustained distortion waves. They get this sound live but on these singles they have a chance to perfectly separate the cymbal crashes or layers of multiple distortions and keep experimenting their garage punk sound to perfection.

That split with Digital Leather was a completely amazing surprise as well which is still available on Southpaw, as well as their first full length - back in print.

Get this from Windian, who just announced their latest single series for 2015. This is on pink and white or blaxk vinyl.

Curtis Seals / Christian D'Orbit on Fred (Windian) records

There's no end to overlooked obscure punk seven inches. First there was Sing Sing Records, inspired by Captured Tracks and Rob's House reminding the world about old, fantastic, impossible to find punk singles and Last Laugh followed shortly with their own represses of early '80s punk from all over and now Windian Records has their say in unearthing awesomeness from Syracuse with this Penetrators double sided single of one off's from drummer Curtis Seals and Christian D'Orbit.

Curtis Seals side "The Scandalizer" is winning me over with this sound quality like it was produced by Mike Rep himself, a muddy sax blows into the low end of the track just absolutely buried and almost warbling on this tape transfer. Great organ and lead from Curtis giving this thing that backroom soul feel. That underground gentlemens club that serves way too much alcohol and guys from the neighborhood sing covers with the house band. It's all recorded together with the rest of the band yelling from the background about being 'the best around'. Half weird joke, this starts to fall apart towards the end but they pull it together and nail this raw, stripped down bluesy soul sound with metallic reverb.
Christian D'Orbit does "Drive Me Crazy" opening into a watery phaser chorus guitar under big time jangle and this side is even better with Christian on snotty punk vocals her first line - "I used to be obnoxious!" Even though this feels like it's running the straight and narrow of shuffling pop rock, she wouldn't have anything to do with contemporary music in '81. Even less with her lyric that he's "driving me crazy" and not in a good I'm in love kind of way. I think more like he burned the house down and crashed the car again. Seriously the band is keeping this groovy rhythm as she peaks out the mic and is driven to screaming her lungs out. Both sides are the beat up heart and the soul of The Penetrators...I'm seeing these guys in a new light.

Pick this one up from Windian Records for the very reasonable price of $5.50.

Killer Bees on Windian Records

It takes an awful lot of effort to rerelease a single from decades ago. An illuminating post on the termbo message boards from a few guys who have tried to put long lost gems like this out made it sound like there's a million deserving singles like this and very few ever get this far because of the people involved or relicensing. The band wants to get paid and the very tiny reissue label just wants it to be heard by the next generation. The Killer Bees were around D.C. in the late seventies and were another band that got their shit together just enough to put a single out with these two tracks that feel like a perfect shapshot of the time period. Little did they know Reagan, nukes and computers would be just around the corner.

A-Side's "TV Violence" opens with the thud of pillow dampened kicks and real gritty guitar distortion that has the edges of this track peaking out past the grooves. Joe Schmidt on vocals has a rough gritty slightly reverb growl to his lyric about public enemy #1; the TV. I guess it was a crazy time to have this piece of technology that seemed like it ruled everything. It's an obvious target of cultural stupidity and extra punk to reject everything it stood for. Kids today. An almost glam sounding track with big winding solo's and a vocal quality like they mic'd that PA in the room. I want to believe they put this together in the same space while Joe completely let's loose as this thing fades out sounding a lot bigger than these four dudes on the back of the sleeve.
B-Side's "Rock and Roll Hangover" has that buzzy distortion coming back and Joe is sweaty sounding a little more bluesy on this one. Nice breakdown dropping out to a spazzy country stomp beat while yelling about chicks and jukeboxes. He's got to have it. (A rock and roll hangover?) I like songs that are as raw and snotty as this about rock and roll itself, making it, living it. I was barely alive when this came out but every day we get further from this stuff I'm glad there's labels like Windian taking a look back to the origins of punk wherever it reared it's mutated head.

Joseph Neff covers the history and time period of release extensively at The Vinyl District.

Pick this up direct from Windian Records.

The Ar-kaics on Windian Records

I think garage in 2014 ought to have a few things; a simple, caveman rhythm section, maybe even just kick and snare, it's good if you can find some kind of distortion that sounds like the cone is punctured for the single guitar, don't bother layering anything, play together in the same room while recording, no overdubs and for good measure run the whole take through a busted PA and mic that for the master. Oh and I almost forgot you've got to have a slightly smart ass, or let's just say really confident vocal style because there can't be any hesitation when you're channelling that primal, emotional stuff. Of course I also just described the Ar-Kaics, a four piece out of Richmond who I first came across thanks to Speakertree Records. They're back on Windian with all the graphic style of their brutish, primal rock as usual.

On A-Side's "Why Should I?" the heavy thud of a slightly distorted kick leads their lead foot/hand sound. This starts out primitive and landing on those snare hits with all sorts of spastic winding solo guitar psyching it's way beihnd these yelping vocals. The chorus then gets really poppy, the cranky creepy blues sound takes a backseat for these vocals about being monogamous to his girl. In two minutes they manage to head back to the bluesy windmill chords with plenty of raw silence between notes. That's the animal, dark side that's really after her so hopefully that pop chorus side of things is what wins out in the end for her sake.
B-Side's "Slave to Her Lies" blasts in with everyone hitting that stomp beat all at once and the vocals sneaking in between those crashes. There's a little of that wet reverb surf sound that raises things up out of the muddy swamp. Plenty of silence and space in this between snarly kicks and the vocals gradually build up to shrieking eerie reverb buried and dark like Slug Guts and of course going back to The Cramps or The Mummies without any of their winking. Nothing but the serious matter of the opposite sex and lies with the nimble cuts from a scythe. Oops - hope you didn't need that arm.

Love the classic center label style from Windian and the Ar-Kaics on this one...they also put out their self titled full length which I'll be ordering from Windian as well.

Mrs Magician on Windian Records

In Eric's note about his latest singles on Windian he mentioned that Mrs. Magician had recently broken up. I was already writing about Soccer Mom's self titled full length when I heard they also just called it quits. It's a sad reminder of how fleeting bands are or can be when you imagine four people playing together for longer than even five years let alone the pressures of touring and your album being responsible for peoples livelyhoods. On any scale it's tough to collaborate creatively and that's what makes singles special, for any one of these bands I've talked about in the last year this could be the last one.

"Friday Night" has a big kick countoff into the Magicians favorite form of harmony garage. I remember thinking their last few had surf inspired sounds and this moves in from the beach a bit with a deep back beat while those harmonies are getting even higher like Kurt Heasley's Kinks stylings. So much closer to psych their next one would inevitably be on Trouble In Mind. It's Friday night and she's with another guy delivered so upbeat in Adam Widener punk phrasing that to their detriment you think 'Yea, well it must not be a big deal buddy.' The whole thing slows down to molasses still sounding as good with a female backup section coming out with a new chorus changing the direction of the track. He's lost his mind a bit and is listening to this single and talking to her - I mean himself. An extremely long fade out on this last piece of pop psych, bittersweet is it's potentially their last.

B-Side's "Crosses" has a nervous dark jangle with synth backing with heavy weird barrages of reverb. The big strums with delay that goes on a full measure. Jacob is right away getting religious on a road trip across the USA, naming names. Heavy on the toms this changes too quickly to keep up with except it's rooted in that '60s american surf garage as much as it is the English Kinks raw or The Zombies unsettling optimism that comes off kind of manic like they could snap singing with a forced grin. Darker forces are at work in this narrative, hinting at vampires and zombies next to xylophone clinks and a slide down the garage scale. R.I.P.

Get this from Windian Records who just announced this Grave Walks record which is a side project of Dan Sartain and Jacob Turnbloom from the Mrs.



Wait - STOP THE PRESSES THEY ARE BACK TOGETHER? I am really behind the times.

The Ettes on Windian Records

 

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.

Podcast Episode 12 - January 19, 2014

Episode 12: Darren and Jason talk about the sad news of the passing of Windian Records founder, Travis Jackson. If you can donate to his family, the link is here. We also cover the latest 3rd man vault package, Flaming Lips RSD news, Suicide Squeeze's forever singles comp, The Merge Records singles club and a Bowie picture disc.

Jason's pick of the week is a Lee Fields single "Faithful Man" on Truth and Soul Records.
Darren picked The Babies latest Our House on the Hill from Woodsist Records.

Next week we talk to Justin from CQ Records.

Subscribe or download/stream over at itunes.

Mondo Ray - Hyptnotized on Windian Records

Windian Records sent this single in from Mondo Ray along with The Penetrators single, and the back sleeve liner notes report this is a brother duo, the Da Cruz's, out of Munich, Germany going after a heavy clear garage punk feel on the A-Side number, "Hypnotized". Actually it's even getting into late '90s Superchunck indie sound for me, palm muted chords over a beating away tom rhythm. It's essentially straightforward power rock track, create a massive racket with just the two of them. I'm starting to think part fo the equation with a duo is this insane energy that wants to make up for a lack of members onstage or something. David gets a little Jello Biafra warbly on the vocals towards the end of this one, but he just can't help it. Fellas, we all know what it's like to be hypnotized, it happens right before being dicknotized and in about as long as this track is on, that cover art is pretty accurate.
The B-Side, "Nothing" has a more layered melodic rock feel, interweaving those tight progressions of quick distortion. They really captured that raw, twangy sound of a metal string being plucked just a little too hard. This one is moving past just the punk garage of the first side and into a sort of nervous post punk present. Get a skinny tie out for this driving, one note punchy rhythm, which quickly blows out into both brothers woah! oh! oh! oh!-ing into the party. Is it any surprise that this genre is being steadily revisited lately with no end in sight? It sounds fun to listen to, let alone play in as a couple of guys touring the bars and basements of the world.
Ultra short bursts of garage rock via Germany with a great psychedelic sleeve from Alex Fine, on Windian Records:

MONDO RAY has been at the forefront of Munich Germany’s Pop-Garage-Punk scene for a while now, pushing out a hand full of singles and an LP due out as well. They have been on the WINDIAN radar since we started 2 years ago, and we are excited to finally release their latest offering “Hypnotized”. The A-Side title track is a quick heater with a “West Coast Sound” drawing from the States, reminiscent of a Circa: Now! RFTC. The B-Side “Nothing” is more of what you expect from this duo. Great Garage-Pop, with a Punk undertone, keeping this song moving at a nice pace.

The Penetrators on Windian Records

Windian Records sent this single in a little while back, a rerelease of a single from Syracuse's own The Penetrators, who, when I was barely one living about an hour away in Rochester, Fred Records released this garage rock single to the post Nixon world. For all the bitchin my dad did about bands not being as good as classic rock and roll countdowns on the AM radio, The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean....I wish I could have told him about local bands that were tearing it up like this...but 30 years later, I'm still getting caught up picking up late '90s singles I missed out on so I can tell my kids that their music sucks and they should have been around during 'lo-fi'.
This single just proves the point I've always knew....there is good music happening in every time, and every place if you just work head enough to find it. Could you even imagine a time when there was no internet and you'd have to talk to someone in Syracuse and find out who the good local bands were, let alone score this single from The Penetrators? I guess in that way people were more 'connected'? Oh hell, it just seems crazy that's all, and you have to respect that.

I love that this A-Side "Gotta Have Her" starts right out with Jack Penetrator introducing the band with a 'Good evening Syracuse, we're called The Penetrators and we're happy to be in town tonight'...this live intro is a genius touch, thinking about them in some studio recording that loose start makes this totally classic, and sets up Jack's verse talking delivery. Spike is echo-ing Jack's chorus in a junkyard dog snarl off in the background, completely drooling into the mic 'You know I gotta have her'. Basically this girl is going to make him forget about everything, who cares about school, you name it...all slightly echo'd over this surf reverb gritty guitar with thin all treble drums...and legitimately sounds like a lot that could have just come out of Floridas Dying or Goner a month ago...even this plain sleeve. But 1976 was a long time ago, and if you say this band was the very beginning, then I'm going to believe you and that's not a bad legacy to have left behind.
The B-Side, "Baby, Dontcha Tell Me", gets real jangly and raw, more melodic and stripped down. Definitely could be a Kinks sound/riff influence, with great vocal quality here just blowing out into the red, and Jack's passionate as hell, really selling this bluesy rock. Even getting to screaming a little bit, because someone is going to tell him what to do? No way...as much as they might have a west coast surf influenced sound, they have a more underlying dangerous edge, real biker gang, working class leather here...actually makes me reminisce about upstate NY. Both of these tracks have still got it...if you've ever heard of Sing Sing or Last Laugh then you should pick this up.

I'm a little worried that it's not listed on Windian's merch page...oh god have I become one of those site's that I always hated...talking about singles that aren't even for sale anymore? NOOOOOOO!

Ok I think I found it after all....did I mention this is faithfully reprinted, down to scanning the original sleeve?