Beatniks - Beatniks EP

 

Artist: Beatniks
Title: Beatniks
Year: 2016
Label: Goodbye Boozy Records
Tracks: 1.) Heat Creatures, 2.) Friends = Enemies, 3.) Dreamless, 4.) Too Many People

Andy "Human" Jordan has been around a long time. He first surfaced with The Cuts in 1999, who were kind of miscast among the late era Lookout! Records but then moved into more familiar surrounds with Mark Murrmann's Rock N Roll Blitzkrieg Records and the short-lived In The Red sublabel Birdman Records. 

After The Cuts, Andy would continue to collaborate with many of the same other artists in bands like The Time Flys, Buzzer, The World, and Andy Human and The Reptoids. Some bands has longer runs and some were kind of one-offs. Beatniks were basically a one-off band. They did this release and then one more on Neck Chop Records the next year. For whatever reason, this band connected with me more than almost all his other stuff. 

"Too Many People" is a garage classic by The Leaves from 1965.  

Sample: here

The Distractors - Shake It Up!!!

 

Artist: The Distractors
Title: Shake It Up!!!
Year: 1999
Label: Big Neck Records
Tracks: 1.) Rock And Roll Fox, 2.) Let You Go, 3.) Bury Her Tonite, 4.) Roller Derby Queen, 5.) Johnny, 6.) Bang! Bang! 

This is the final Distractors 7". This one got a little better distribution thanks to the great reputation of Bart Hart's long-running Big Neck label. The Distractors still had an earlier 7" than these two, which I don't own, but will probably end up with one day. 

Sample: here

The Distractors - Shithouse Crazy

 

Artist: The Distractors
Title: Shithouse Crazy
Year: 1998
Label: Cheap Date Records
Tracks: 1.) Fall Again, 2.) Let's Get Sick, 3.) Fucked Up (Beyond Repair), 4.) Cockroach Stomp

 I've had this record forever. It's a remnant of the old says of pre-internet where if a record got a couple good mentions in Maximum Rocknroll or the Underground Medicine catalog, you just bought it without hearing it. I've always overall liked this but it never quite totally grabbed me where I listened to it a lot. 

At the time I had no idea who any of the members were but now the band is most notable to being the first recorded output of Austin rocker Trey Roblez. Trey played guitar and sang most of these songs and then went on to the fairly similar Young Losers. After that he played drums for a while with the John Schooley-led Hard Feelings. They put out a lot of records and toured and all that. He was less active after that, mostly popping up here or there with other old timers before passing away in 2021. The drummer here was Allan Nelson, who similarly switched between guitar and drums in other bands and recorded with Teen Cool, The Ends, Richie Whites, and others. The bass player is a girl named Jennifer I don't know anything about. 

Sample: here

The Fells - Fun Date

 

Artist: The Fells
Title: Fun Date
Year: 1992
Label: Third World Underground
Tracks: 1.) Fun Date, 2.) Easy Rider

I'm not much of an expert on The Fells but they probably deserve more credit than they get. Their first records came out in 1991. That's the same year as Supercharger. One year later than The Humpers. Two years before The Rip Offs. The Fells were legitimately one of the first modern bands playing raw straight forward rock 'n' roll inspired punk. They held down the state of Arizona in the 1990s and along with The Drags in New Mexico made the southwest USA just as important as southern California at the time. 

The Fells had some heavy hitters in their lineup, too. The central core was Jeff Glave and Heath Heemsbergen who shared duties on vocals, guitar, and songwriting. Jeff eventually moved to the Bay Area and played in a lot of bands including Radio Reelers and Control Freaks with Greg Lowery. Heath moved to Michigan and was a longtime member of the all mighty Tyvek. The Fells went through a number of bassists and drummers, with the most notable of them being bass player Rob Yazzie, who has played in a bunch of Austin bands.

This is one of their earlier records. Third World Underground seems to have been a general Tucson indie label. "Fun Date" is a Heath song with a fairly standard punchy punk rock sound, heavy on the guitar effects. To me, "Easy Rider" is the winner, a Jeff song with a very spacy groove. It kind of reminds me of Tyvek, even though it's not credited to Heath.   

Sample: here

The Tweezers - Love Kills

 

Artist: The Tweezers
Title: Love Kills
Year: 2017
Label: Time Bomb
Tracks: 1.) Love Kills, 2.) Someday, 3.) Teen Machinery

It's fairly well know that when Teengenerate broke up at the end of 1995, brothers Fink and Fifi immediately formed new power pop bands. Fink did The Raydios and Fifi with The Tweezers. The Raydios made their way to Western audiences with the LP on Sweden's [edit] Germany's Screaming Apple label and later a second LP on Dirtnap but The Tweezers were much more elusive, releasing all their records on Japanese labels. 

The Tweezers were rounded out by Koji of Samantha's Favourite on guitar, Tomoko from Supersnazz on bass, and Uganda from Jet Boys and also Samantha's Favourite on drums. Their sole LP was released in 1997. To celebrate the 20 year anniversary, original label Time Bomb remastered and re-released the album and also did this 7" as a bonus. "Love Kills" was an unreleased song from the original sessions. "Someday" is a cover by The Kids, but this is a different version than what was on the album. "Teen Machinery" is another alternate version of a LP track. The updated CD included all these songs, and others, but they were also released separately here for vinyl fans. 

The Tweezers never recorded any more but kept on playing live forever. At some point Fifi stopped playing guitar and they added a fifth member. 

Sample: here

Razz - Pleasantries

 

Artist: Razz
Title: Pleasantries
Year: 2016
Label: Warm Wet Records
Tracks: 1.) No Time, 2.) Pleasantries, 3.) We Complain, 4.) Wish You Well (Ballad Of J + B)

Razz might be best known for featuring bass player Andy "Human" Jordan, and his bass playing is tight, but the direction of band comes from singer and guitarist Dan Wood. Dan has been around since the early 1990s with Flathead, but really came into his own with The Pets in the mid-2000s.

Razz continues along the same lines as The Pets but arguably has a more mature vibe. They have a LP from 2017 that is really good, too. 

Sample: here

The Silverkings - Warning: 100% Shit!

 

Artist: The Silverkings
Title: Warning: 100% Shit! 
Year: 1997
Label: G.I. Productions
Tracks: 1.) Class Trash, 2.) Bomb Threat, 3.) Turpentine, 4.) Don't Tread On Me

I remember G.I. Productions being pretty active during this stretch of the mid-90's but I didn't pay them much attention. I felt like they seemed like a lower tier label and with limited money and no internet to listen to things, I focused on other labels and records. 

I only just got hip to this. As far as I know this is the first record featuring Joe Pestilence. Joe would go on to play in 10-4 Backdoor with King Louie Bankston, had a run playing keyboard with The Spits, and then upon moving back south played bass on perhaps the best Buck Biloxi & The Fucks records. 

This record stands up with everything he did after. It's just really good, catchy, heavily rock 'n' roll influenced trash rock. They did one other 7" on the Swedish label Ken Rock. I still need to get that. 

Sample: here

Sleez Sisters - Sleez Sisters (Theme)

 

Artist: Sleez Sisters
Title: Sleez Sisters (Theme)
Year: 1991
Label: Sympathy For The Record Industry
Tracks: 1.) Sleez Sisters (Theme), 2.) Sick On You

Full disclosure I don't remember this at all from back in the day. It came out 2-3 years before I would have been looking for something like this. I only recently discovered it by chasing down some rabbit holes. Drummer Hisayo was a short time member of American Soul Spiders and slightly longer time member of Supersnazz. Guitar player Rico and bass player Mikako were in a very early version of the 5.6.7.8's. 

Musically this sounds a lot like early Supersnazz to me with the vocal delivery and general bounciness. "Sick On You" was originally recorded by the pre-Boys band Hollywood Brats, which was probably an obscure cut for this time period. 

Like a lot of Japanese bands from this time, Sleez Sisters are still going, and also like a lot of Japanese bands from this time that are still around, they haven't recorded much in a long time. It  seems they have a more hard rock sound now than on this record. 

Sample: here

The Half Rats - Throw It Around

Artist: The Half Rats
Title: Throw It Around
Year: 2007
Label: Culture Cast
Tracks: 1.) Throw It Around, 2.) B.M.W. Nuns, 3.) Throw It Around (Demo)

I remember The Half Rats existing during their time but never explored them because I thought they just kind of got lost in the shuffle among a lot of budget pop coming out of Indiana, highlighted by The Romance Novels with honorable mentions to Eric and The Happy Thoughts, The Sweet Sixteens, and The Boy Toys. 

But now that I re-visit The Half Rats, I can hear that they have some legitimately tough garage chops and aren't really all that pop even if they include Ryan from The Boy Toys and Alex from The Perennials. I don't know who wrote these songs but the second 7" credits all the songs to member Tyler who went on to be in the later version of Cococoma and that is closer to what this sounds like. 

This is The Half Rats' first 7". I assume it is self-released. The sleeve only indicates two songs. The third song seems to be a demo version of "Throw It Around". 

Sample: here

Jumpin' Beans And Willie - Popcorn

Artist: Jumpin' Beans And Willie
Title: Popcorn
Year: 2000
Label: Ball Records
Tracks: 1.) Popcorn, 2.) Milkshake For Two

More from Aaron and Will. This time a more mellow Hasil Adkins-inspired set. 

Sample: here

Black Time - ICU

Artist: Black Time
Title: ICU
Year: 2008
Label: Skulltones
Tracks: 1.) ICU, 2.) Corpse Life, 3.) Doomsday Parade

I briefly mentioned Black Time when posting The Real Losers a long time ago but this is the first time I have directly posted them. Black Time pretty much came out of nowhere in 2004 with a self-released LP called Blackout doing this kind of blown out and sparse but frequently catchy noise. 

The core of the band has always been singer and guitar player Lemmy Caution. I have a vague recollection his real name is Matthew something but he has consistently gone by this alias. All the rest of the members use aliases, too, and it is hard to tell if there has been a rotating cast or if they're the same 2-3 people changing names here and there. 

This is just one of a ton of good records they've done. "Corpse Life" is a real rocker. 

Sample: here

The Peeps - Stiletto

Artist: The Peeps
Title: Stiletto
Year: 2000
Label: Lipstick Records
Tracks: 1.) Stiletto, 2.) Rock-N-Roll Man, 3.) Loverboy

Here's a fun 7" from the always enjoyable Lipstick Records. The Peeps fit in well among the other bands Tina released doing the budget pop but a nastier edge and usually featuring women. 

The Peeps were from Arizona but were well connected to the California scene. Their lone LP is on Sympathy For The Record Industry and they recorded almost everything they did, including this, with Jeff Dahl. The Peeps were short-lived. They broke up right after this and the LP were released. Guitarist Paula and bassist Chela would then go onto Les Hell On Wheels, which had a run through most of the 2000's. Paula and Chela also did a project band with Miss Georgia Peach and Travis Ramin called The American Foxes. 

Sample: here

Teacher's Pet - Jenny Super Teen

Artist: Teacher's Pet
Title: Jenny Super Teen
Year: 2001
Label: Flapping Jet Records
Tracks: 1.) Jenny Super Teen, 2.) Pom Pom Girls, 3.) You're Too Young

A long time ago I came across a blog with a download for a band called S'cool Girls. It wasn't great but I filed it away as interesting because back then there weren't many bands doing a budget glam sound. 

Some time after that I put in a little research to see who S'cool Girls were. There wasn't a lot of info about them but I did learn that their singer is named Noah Wallace. A little more digging revealed that he was previously in Teacher's Pet. 

This was their only release. There are some YouTube videos of songs not on this record that apparently came from a demo CD. Along with The Retardos and The Fevers, Teacher's Pet is in the discussion among the first contemporary bands doing a budget bubblegum sound, going even farther into a heavy Milk 'N' Cookies influence. I think a few people might like this record but I don't think it caught on with the larger scene of bands profiled on here like The Retardos and The Fevers did. 

Noah Wallace has continued to be active. He's been doing a band called Hammered Satin since about 2012. They have a few releases and been absorbed under the Burger Records umbrella. They're pretty nonironic hard rock and should be avoided. 

Sample: here

The Goodnight Loving - Cemetery Trails Demos

Artist: The Goodnight Loving
Title: Cemetery Trails Demos
Year: 2006
Label: none
Tracks: 1.) Easier Than It Is, 2.) Seeds And Stems, 3.) Girl, 4.) Dead Fish On The Banks, 5.) Takes Its Toll, 6.) Fireworks, 7.) Talkin' Tall, 8.) One Too Many Times, 9.) Smoke And Mirrors, 10.) Wreck Yer Nerves, 11.) Join The Order, 12.) Sordid Borders, 13.) Up North Girl, 14.) You Won't Change, 15.) Sinking Like A Stone, 16.) Another Foggy Yesterday, 17.) Wisconsin Avenue, 19.) Shortwave, 20.) Deadweight, 21.) Content To Fall, 22.) Payphone

The Goodnight Loving took the fairly unusual approach of releasing an LP before a single or anything but they were good enough it worked. I remember first listening to them online via the always interesting Dusty Medical Records and thinking they were ok but not really my thing. Then they got added as a last minute replacement at the 2006 Horizontal Action Blackout and they won me over. 

While their sound is very polished and not really punk in structure, it is still very manic and played with a high level of energy. All the members sing and they trade instruments throughout their shows. It's a shame they never reached an audience beyond the garage punk subset because they were good enough to be bigger. 

Most of their music is available for digital purchase so I won't be posting any of that stuff. This is a collection of demos from the Cemetery Trails era I got off SoulSeek a long time ago. 

Sample: here

Rat Traps / Jeffrey Novak One Man Band CDEP

Artist: Rat Traps / Jeffrey Novak One Man Band
Title: Split
Year: 2005
Label: Sonic Assault Records
Tracks: 1.) Zombies, 2.) Break It Down, 3.) Tennessee Rock 'N' Roll, 4.) Back Off, 5.) I've Lost It, 6.) No Way Out

April Novak and then husband Joe Simpson had been living in New York City for a few years when they decided to move back home to Tennessee around 2005. By that time teenaged little brother Jeffrey Novak had already become a pretty accomplished punk rock musician and songwriter playing as a one man band. With April and Joe in tow, Jeff expanded his horizons to play in a complete band with them. 

I don't know if Joe had played in any "real" bands at this point, but he played like an experienced guitarist. April seemed very new to playing guitar. Jeff can simply do it all and picked up playing drums like it was nothing. All of them wrote songs and sang. Unlike the Oblivians, they didn't trade instruments to sing their songs. Jeff sang from behind the drum kit. 

This CDR was sold on a Rat Traps/One Man Band tour in the summer of 2005, which must have been before the first Rat Traps 7" on Patrick from Shop Fronts' Your Permanent Records was released. I recall when I saw them, Rat Traps played first and One Man Band was the headliner. 

All of the Rat Traps songs would end up on vinyl. "Zombies" and "Break It Down", both Jeff songs, would be on their second 7", on Jay Reatard and Alix Brown's Shattered Records. "Tennessee Rock 'N' Roll", the only Joe song I like, was on the first. 

"Back Off" is the only One Man Band song that would be on a record. It's on Southern Trash. The other two are otherwise unreleased. 

Sample: here

Black Rose Band - Roadkill From The Lost Bayou

Artist: Black Rose Band
Title: Roadkill From The Lost Bayou
Year: 2006
Label: None
Tracks: 1.) My Love Ain't Easy, 2.) First Nite Out, 3.) Say Goodbye, 4.) Firewater, 5.) Dead In A Bag Without A Head, 6.) Today Is As Hard, 7.) One More For The Road, 8.) Highway Rose, 9.) Hot Box, 10.) Roadkill

The last we checked in with King Louie was with Kajun SS. That would be about the end of his all-out punk era as he transitioned into a more intricate, mellower, Southern boogie-woogie sound. 

Black Rose Band is most significant as the first collaboration between Louie and guitar wizard Julien Fried. Julien would up the musicianship from everything Louie had previously been a part of. He cut his teeth with The Detonations in the early 2000's, along with Keith from The Drags and John Henry Kelly, and would go on to play with Louie in Missing Monuments, Terry & Louie, and as a fill-in with Loose Diamonds. I once saw Julien accompany King Louie One Man Band and it was great. 

I got this off of Soulseek a long time ago. I assume it was from a CDR but it has never been listed into Discogs. The only official release this ever got was as half of a double cassette from 2014. The other half of that was another demo-type release called Boogie Woogie Wasteland. There are a few songs of overlap between that and Roadkill. "Hot Box" has its origins with the King Louie and Joe Pestilence band 10-4 Backdoor, from Portland. The only vinyl BRB did was a 7" on Alicja Trout's Contaminated Records, pictured above. 

Sample: here

The Sunday Sinners - Demo

Artist: The Sunday Sinners 
Title: Demo
Year: 2004
Label: None
Tracks: 1.) Mama Didn't Raise No Fool, 2.) Ironworkin' Man, 3.) A Sinner's Prayer, 4.) Darlin', 5.) Are You Sure, 6.) You Child

One of my favorite compilations is 2005's Sympathetic Sounds Of Montreal. The Sunday Sinners were my favorite new band that comp introduced me to. 

As you can guess, The Sunday Sinners were from Montreal. They featured Jenna from The Del-Gators and Annie from Les Sexareenos. This is their demo. "Are You Sure" was on Sympathetic Sounds. "You Child", "Darlin'", and "Mama Didn't Raise No Fool" were released on a 7" by Perpetrator Records from New Zealand in 2006. At least some of these songs are covers. "Are You Sure" is originally a show tune from The Unsinkable Molly Brown but this song is based on the soul version by Aretha Franklin in 1961. It is possible all the songs are covers but I don't know. 

The Sunday Sinners stayed active for a while but never released much more. They did another CD-EP with new songs in 2006 and then only a few comp tracks after that. They had at least some lineup changes. Former Mystery Girls guitarist Jordan joined the band, as well as eventually marrying Jenna. The two of them formed another band called Honey & Lies but they didn't record much. 

Sample: here

FM Knives - Estrogen

Artist: FM Knives
Title: Estrogen
Year: 2002
Label: SmartGuy Records
Tracks: 1.) Estrogen, 2.) Can't Afford You Now, 3.) Just Like William Tell, 4.) Cassavettes Vs. The Moneygoround

Here's their first 7", recently acquired. 

Sample: here

Candygirl - Oh, Jacky Boy!

Artist: Candygirl
Title: Oh, Jacky Boy!
Year: 1999
Label: Jetstar Records
Tracks: 1.) Oh, Jacky Boy!, 2.) Candygirl

I'm kind of cheating here. I don't actually own this. These are mp3's from the Candygirl & Friends CD. 

Sample: here

The Lids - Live On WREK

Artist: The Lids
Title: Live On WREK
Year: 2003
Label: None
Tracks: 1.) Distracted, 2.) That's What I Know, 3.) Too Late, 4.) She's Been Around, 5.) No Good, 6.) Rumble, 7.) Get Lost, 8.) No Fool For You, 9.) Hello Josephine, 10.) Something To Do, 11.) Interview, 12.) I Didn't Cry, 13.) So Long

Here's a not widely shared set of The Lids live on Georgia Tech radio station WREK. I'm not positive what year this is from but my best guess might be 2003 because while most of these songs would be on their 2004 LP, I don't hear a bass player, so this may be before Mark joined the band. 

This is a great set but doesn't contain any forgotten unreleased originals. You get a bunch of the hits from the LP plus a half assed cover of Link Wray's "Rumble" (Bobby And The Soft Spots recorded another version in 2010) and then more serious covers of Fats Domino's "Hello Josephine" and The Pandoras' "I Didn't Cry". 

Photo by Canderson. 

Thanks to Dave F. for recording this. 

Sample: here