The Nitecaps - Frug

The Nitecaps play that raucous saxophone-fueled kind of instrumental rock & roll that gets forgotten behind the monstrous word that is "surf". Here they've prepared a fiery lineup of covers and pun-titled songs to promote their dance move of choice and mine: The Frug. I would kill to know how to do the frug, but my dreams of having an RRHHWW reader releasing a slew of Youtube oldies-dance instructional videos are mostly abandoned, though Wikipedia hasn't forgotten this particular dance.

Anyway, this is a good one. The worst songs are still worth a hipshake and tracks like "Sassy Frug" their rendition of "You Can't Sit Down" are an outright riot. 

Here's where you can get it

Quick Gonerfest wrap-up

I've been in Memphis for the past few days checking out the premier Southern garage rock festival. Either you went or you didn't and I can't see why my asshole opinions would be of value either way, so I'll keep this quick and we'll get to ripping some more vinyl as soon as I get the chance

Friday

Cococoma: I have their LP with the flaming groovies-inspired album cover. Punchy, fun, pop garage. Nothing to write home about but as the first band I saw I still had fun

Magnetix: Coolest band of Friday. French duo with a dark and noisy sound. Stripped down and fun.

Ty Segall: The crowd loved him but I thought his live show was just about as boring as his newest LP. Go fig.

The Reatards: firecrackers, stage-peeing, general fuck you's to the audience (including "this guy is from vice magazine" (pointing to the guy with the camera) "he's co-opting your culture. That's not garage") I thought the music was a blast but the crowd was full of morons and, yeah, I couldn't really go along with all the shit that the festival's biggest indie-rock celebrity said. Somebody likened it to pro wrestling, and that seems about right. The same person left when Jay fought his bandmate, saying "this is all too Samuel Beckett for me". Still, at some point he took out a wad of ones and made it rain, so I made $3 from the show.

Saturday

Shitty Beach Boys: While not performing quite as apathetically as their youtube videos would suggest, it's a pretty fun gimmick to hear shitty beach boys covers. They were selling airbrushed T-shirts and sloppily painted skateboard decks after the show. That was really all that grabbed me during the day, except for cheap and tasty hot dogs.

The Intelligence: I heard these guys on a recommendation from a friend, bought their album and half-listened to it once with no desire to listen again. I actually didn't realize they were the same band as that album until day of. Seeing them live, I get the recommendation a little more. Nothing too great, but a little fat synthesizer under your garage rock with, god forbid, some legit syncopation worked out OK. Their cover of an Oh Sees song sorta made them feel like Oh Sees lite...

Davila 666: YES. Puerto Rican band on in the red was the first band to really  get me moving. Meaningless, party-oriented, first pounding punk at its best. I keep trying to think of a band that captures the sort of feeling I'm talking about (it's not rare), but if I said turbonegro you'd think jokey and cheesy. 

Thee Oh Sees: Big fan already and they didn't disappoint. I kind of feel like their sound on the albums is a little more restrained than it could be, but it wasn't the case for this show. Big percussive drums for some vicious stomping. Thanks to them and Davila I was wearing a wet rag by the end of the night

Compulsive Gamblers: it's hard to top an Oblivians reunion like last year and they didn't, but the (thinned out) crowd was still very appreciative. I gotta admit, I found myself mostly enjoying the songs I knew, but I think this is a band better committed to record.

Sunday

Gentleman Jesse: People were pouring out of the place with their record and I don't really blame them. They certainly weren't the roughest band at the show but they played some top-notch hook-laden pop punk.

Girls of the Gravitron: hipster shitgaze whatever, but that loud mess of noise was working pretty well for me. Looks like they only have a mostly sold out 7" though.

River City Tanlines: great straightforward rock & roll. I guess my review is as generic as everything else written about them, but I promise it was great.

Tirefire: New Orleans metal band closes the show for some reason. Sure enough,there were Tires and a lot of firecrackers. The whole thing definitely felt like a high school backyard festival full of high school idiots. In the best way.

Magic Kids: sing-songy rock that I had a bit of a soft spot for. I only got to see two songs though

Box Elders: I think their new LP Alice and Friends is all sorts of fun but in a surprising way. They didn't surprise me live too much but it was fun enough. They sealed the deal with a great cover of Teenage Kicks right at the end.

Nobunny: the whole gimmick is that the guy wears a bunny mask. Not a good gimmick to overcome the long and unfunny banter inbetween the songs. But when there was music is was loud, tight and fun.

Cheater Slicks: Maybe everybody was too tired? The place was emptier than it was for the first bands despite Cheater Slicks playing some of the dirtiest, most powerful rock & roll of the night. Those of us still there universally dug it I think. A Great closer

Larry Wilcox and his Orchestra - Tuff Saxes and Twangy Guitars

Despite the title and cover, this is not a surf/drag album. It's HOT ROD JAZZ, and they actually do a pretty good job of letting you know that; the LP label has it in bigger words than anything else.

So what does that meeeaaaannnn? That means it's fun jazz. Just think of all the other goofy jazz offshoots like Spy Jazz or Crime Jazz. While I think this is actually pretty aptly named, this has more in common with Hugo Montenegro than Charles Mingus, and it's actually pretty diverse. There's a song or two that could almost pass for surf such as the opening track "Big Deuce", his rendition of "(get right down to the real) Nitty Gritty" doesn't lose its funky edge, and "Loddy Lo" is just kind of weird.

So if you're a surf fan should you go ahead and give this a shot? Yeah, I'd say so, it's still got the same sense of adventure to it. I mean, just read the back cover here (which is where you'll find a tracklisting as well)

And a note about ripping: I'd been trying for ages to cut down on my record noise. I usually rip with Shure mx97e cartridge which is pretty widely accepted as a good needle. Despite Sansui's reputation, I switched to an Onkyo reciever like my main unit in hopes that the built-in preamp on the onkyo would smooth it out better. No luck. Then in desperation I swapped in a Stanton needle I had laying around (that I had researched and found to be "not that great"). Believe it or not, here we have a rip without a monster amount of audible pops and record scratches. I feel like I've lost my trademark!

COME N GETTIT

A few things I've been listening to

First of all, I got a surprise message from the French surf rock group The OK Kings, who graciously sent me a promo of their brand new album to play on my show. Phil Dirt gave it 5 stars but really, I've never dug Phil Dirt reviews, especially with his lo-fi dismissals. So here's my short review: it rips.

The OK Kings - Washout

Their Myspace is right here

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Also found on Myspace: The Space Agency
This is a pretty DIY effort and their myspace looks even worse than mine, but the previews were good and my well-developed gut feelings were screaming at me so I placed an order for their first album. It was expensive to begin with and coming from the UK didn't help, but it was worth it. Fuzzy lo-fi weirdo surfy stuff that, honestly, out-psychs the new Satan's Pilgrims album (not that I don't like that album). I seem to remember finding something saying the lead guitarist went to grad school studying Indian music or something, I don't know

The Space Agency - You Make Me Nervous

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Alabama Kid - Rockin' Jalopy

this was on some garage compilation somewhere. I don't know anything about it... I don't even know if it's being played at the right speed considering that there's two other Youtube videos at different speeds. I do know I listened to it on repeat for a little while

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Lastly, here's some of the most kickass old-style zydeco I've heard. The only information I've been able to find so far is from a goldband records site saying he only recorded about five songs. 

Thaddus Declouet - Shake it Up All Night Long

Thaddus Declouet - Lake Charles Doo-Doo-Dia

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Hope we all had some fun. I'd love to hear about anything cool you've heard lately, I'm by no means some sort of guru (if you've been checking this site out often that much should be clear).

AND

Storm Surge of Reverb starts at 4PM today (2 hours from posting time) at www.wtulneworleans.com

The Ziontones - Hope Ahead

A few things I like about The Ziontones:

• Enthusiasm!
• Clear funk influence. I mean clear as in "check out the Cissy Strut riff jacking on "Working for Jesus".
• A little bit of everything: This hits funk gospel, foot-stompers, shouted sermon and even a little bit of a soulful heart jerker.
• Despite its existence being pretty recognized, its lack of backstory details are as well, meaning I don't have to feel bad about my knowing nothing as usual
• There's a lot of them! Look at it!

Most mentions will say that this is a great album. I think it's definitely a good album, but about 3/4 on the way to great. They've got the energy and they've got some fun bass playing, but the songs are always just shy of having the form and hooks that make a real monster. In fact, I think the most memorable track on here is the much more subdued closer "Somebody's Missing"

But I'll let you judge for yourself

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The Hot Rodders - Big Hot Rod

Yet another Jerry Cole/Crown Hot Rod release, but really despite the budget label I think this is a fantastic album, better than yesterday's post with The Winners and on par with some of the more established surf classics. Not only are all the instrumentals fun in some manner, but the vocal tracks are as well. In fact, I'd say that without a doubt the standout here is "Spirit of America' in which an exploitation-film-style monotone voice tells you about an 11' tall, 60' long unbeatable dragster between evil laughs. This is the weird stuff y'all, and if nothing else this is worth it for that track alone

Side A:

1.  On the Track
2. Fine 39
3. 27 tub
4. Super Charged
5. The Screamer

Side B:

1.  Red Hot Rod
2. Spirit of America
3. Drag Shoot
4. Wild Willys
5. The Creamer

GET IT HERE

The Winners - Checkered Flag

The Winners are another of the many Crown Records surf/drag budget albums that (according to this blog) had Jerry Cole behind them. I love Jerry Cole dearly and at first the word "budget" seems a little unfair for this album, as it's all pretty competent and even has some songs that I'd call a lot of fun. But when considered alongside other Crown records budget releases (I found this alongside The Hot Rodders - Big Hot Rod (probably next up on this blog) and a few others), you'll find that they recycle songs from one album to the other. They're played differently, but it's pretty funny to see them attach so many different names to "Hey Bo Diddley". 

But if we take a look at what this album is, first I'd like to include the review from the flea market vendor who sold it to me (who had some pretty kickass old hot rod magazines too), "I think it's just a recording of a bunch of hot rod race track sounds". I knew he was wrong but I still thought "YESSSSSSSS". And sure enough, there's plenty of that interspersed throughout

We're looking at about half and half vocal and instrumental tracks. The vocal tracks, even though I've gained a pretty big love for hot rod vocals, are nothing special or even particularly funny. I think this album really gets fun right on the second side with "down lok", "up lok" and the real choice cut "Cops and Rodders". Three points to whoever can identify the real names of some of these, listening to all these Crown releases has kind of gotten me confused.

Side A:

1. Drop That Flag
   
2. Uptown Model A
3. Big Boss Man
4. Checkered Flag
5. Stick Shiftin

Side B:

1. Wind Her Up
2. Runnin Second
3. Down Lok
4. Up Lok
5. Cops and Rodders

GET IT HERE

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STORM SURGE OF REVERB has Moved!

To today! Sundays from 4-6PM CST every week.

www.wtulneworleans.com

this poster obviously outdated...

Playlists are still being posted at sg101

old shows are here

new actual posts coming up, it's been a rough couple of weeks