Mar 162009
UPDATED
Tell us what you think of the Mystery Date. If you know who it is, shut your pie-hole., please don’t spill the beans. If you don’t know who it is, see if you can come close to guessing. Don’t forget to show your work.
Additional track:
At first I thought it was something featuring the early Velvet Foghorn, but I think The Exploding MCs only did covers.
As listened to this Nuggets-like tune I kept thinking it sounded like a hardcore band trying to sound like a garage-rock band. Then, at the 1:15 mark, the song turned “hardcore,” confirming my suspicions. That’s a total hardcore-informed freakout, no? I wish I could better identify hardcore singers. I’ll guess that it’s some proto-version of Black Flag. I could see Greg Ginn getting off a solo like this.
I don’t know, do hardcore bands use wah-wah pedals? The only band I know that uses that kind of electronic noise-maker — not a synth exactly, but some kind of oscillator — is the Japanese group Acid Mothers Temple. Or it it the Boredoms? I can’t tell them apart. But neither of them has an American vocalist, and their pieces usually last much longer.
Brrrrrr. It’s kinda cold in here.
Original Sins?
My guess was Manster who had a couple of songs on the Live at CBGB’s record, including a jacked up “Over, Under, Sideways, Down”. I’m sure it’s not them, but it sounds somethin’ like I remember ’em.
Uh. No. FYI: You’re not going to be able to guess it exactly but you could get a lot closer to what’s been offered up so far.
There’s a therimen or some other primitive analog synth during the wah-wah jam, no? Could this be someone from that Pere Ubu scene, like original guitarist Peter Laughner on his own?
Mod’s getting at least a little closer on the timeline. Again, you won’t be able to name the band or the members. You could name the producer… But I doubt it.
But let’s see if we can’t get some influences at least. “A hardcore band trying to sound garage” was a good guess but not right.
If someone can come up with something along those lines that comes close, the Mystery will be revealed.
johnathan richmond and the LA punks?
I liked it a lot. If we’re never gonna guess it then I’m gonna guess a band I never heard and guess The Mumps. I’ve read about them, but I never found any of their music.
Jeez, this is a tough one, going by what Sammy laid down as guidelines. We “won’t be able to name band, or it’s members”, right? Is this mid-late 70s NYC, ‘cuz it sounds like that? The guy on vocals sounds a little like Richard Hell crossed w/Johnny Thunders, but in a slightly lower register.
I dunno, are they “art” rockers trying to sound punk (punk, in that NY 70’s, catch-all kinda way)?
Johnathan Richmond is kinda sorta getting close. But not enough to reveal!
Jerry Harrison?
Sorry. We’re not supposed to know the band or any of it’s members? Does that mean it’s a one man band? Is it movie soundtrack? 70s NYC art school faux junkie rock.
2000man, The Mumps were much more campy/poppy. The campy side definitely had to do with Lance Loud, the gay son from PBS’s An American Family, being their vocalist(but if you’ve read about ’em, you already know all this). He was pretty flamboyant, in what has become, at this late date, a rather cliched kinda way. It’s weird that you haven’t ever found their stuff, it ain’t amazing, but I’d think it’d be (however much of it there is) out there somewhere.
So, Sammy, I’m off with the NY 70s idea, eh? Jonathan R. is closer, kinda. Are they a Boston group? Is this some very early version of The Cars or something? Fronted by Willie Alexander?
Hey, Mr. Chicken! How was your drive home. It truly was, to borrow a phrase from the great Don Cornelius, a stone gas seein’ ya again. Did you get the YouTube thang I sent you? Lemme know on regular email. Sorry ’bout the sidebar, fellers.
It says something about the band that you guys keep suggesting mid-late 70’s art/punk NY kinda stuff. I was really just looking for a vague time period and a couple of obvious influences before I spilled the beans.
I just put up another track with, hopefully, more obvious time/influence indicators.
Detroit, late ’60s? That’s not so different from NYC in the 70s. There’s an Iggy vibe. German Dada movement?
chickenfrank is as close as it’s going to get I think. Stay tuned for the reveal.
The second song is very cool. I know who this is now. I won’t spoil it, but until I just looked up their band members I will say that I always thought one of the guys in the band was an original member of Pere Ubu. So, I was practically right in my wrong-headed notion of the musical universe. Well done, Mod! Nice one, Sammy!
Sounds Canadian.
2000man, Turns out there IS a 23 track comp. of The Mumps, titled “Fatal Charm”. You can find it on Amazon, if you’re at all interested in hearing them.
Chickenfank, didn’t that take place in the late ’20s, early ’30s?
Christ, that 2nd helping just has me more confused. Is it really early DEVO, or some other Cleveland or Akron area group?
Was it produced by Mayo Thompson? Spot? John Cale? Roy Thomas Baker? Overend Watts from Mott The Hoople?
That synth-y sound that comes swooping in makes me think Ohio, but the rest of the backing still has a NYC ’70s vibe to it.
Uh, The Electric Eels? The Styrenes? Chia Pig? The Bizarros? Tin Huey? The Waitresses before the chick singer joined?
Black Randy & The Metro Squad? Chrome? Maybe they’re Canadian. The Diodes? The Viletones? The B-Girls played at a slower speed?
AAAaaarrrghhh!!!
Love that Simply Saucer disc, it has been a great decade for digging up “lost” bands who really deserved more attention. Just last Sunday the NYTimes had a nice piece about Death, a Detroit trio of African Americans who feel in love with Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper. There’s an mp3 people should check out over there, “Politicians In My Eyes” which has a real MC5 style power.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/music/15rubi.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=death%20drag%20city&st=cse
BTW guys, Jonathan’s last name is ‘Richman’, not ‘Richmond’.