Artist: The Retardos
Title: Don't Want The Retardos
Year: 1997
Label: Super*Teem!
Tracks: 1.) I Can Only Dream, 2.) Girl Like You, 3.) Quit This Town
If The Mummies introduced a new generation of musicians to 50s and 60s rock and Teengenerate introduced kids to obscure 70s punk, I like to think The Retardos played at least a small role in introducing future tastemakers to power pop. The Retardos were a short-lived Bay Area group most notably featuring Brian Hermasillo before he started The Fevers and semi-notably featuring Kathy Walker, of Donny Denim and The Pinkz fame.
Like the aforementioned bandaged ones and Fink and Fifi, The Retardos took an overlooked niche of rock music and gave it the budget treatment to breathe a little freshness into it. Unlike The Mummies and Teengenerate, this record doesn't have any original songs. It starts off with a Protex cover, moves onto The Explosives, and finishes up with the Eddie and The Hot Rods classic. Released by Darin Raffaelli's Super*Teem! label, my copy doesn't have a back cover but other ones do. I don't know if that represents different pressings or was an error. The Retardos would do one more 7" before moving onto other things. There's another, newer band called The Retardos and you probably don't want anything to do with them.
Sample: here
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