Category: Jay Hinman

Last year the outstanding radio show ART FOR SPASTICS gave me my first taste of Los Angeles band the SILVER DAGGERS, and I very much liked what I heard. I know I’m lazy, and do this all the time, but why repeat myself – here’s what I wrote about them in March 2006:

No, not BL’AST, and not even SUNSHINE SUPER SCUM – I’m talking about this very recent (late 2006) 45 from Michigan’s RED RED RED, one of the most ripping, wild, noxo punk rock records of the 21^st century thus far. Finding information on the band online was a bit of a chore, what with a malfunctioning band website, a poorly-updated page from their current label, and next-to-nothing written about them. After a bit of sleuthing I found their Myspace page, and from there learned that this project contains an ex-member of THE PIRANHAS, a band who, in retrospect, were pretty friggin’ great themselves. A must-purchase is their LP/CD collection of their first two 45s – I wrote about it here.

RED RED RED honestly sound like they were coughed from a rough night of coupling between ’81 BLACK FLAG (with Dez on vocals) and Michigan hardcore heroes THE FIX. It’s that intense and crazed, and I haven’t heard many punk rock tracks this great in a long while. There’s an LP/CD out right now called “MIND DESTROYERâ€Â (again, I had to work my ass off to find that out), and you can order it right here. I just did.

In the midst of the fireburst of raw, simple, gnarly American garage punk of the early 1990s, a few masterpieces stand out. I’ve been posting a few of them on this site, and have detailed a short list of them here as well. It’s probably time to get THE INHALANTS 45 up, don’t you think? As it turns out, this Texas band put out five 45s in the early 90s, but the one I “adoredâ€Â, and I don’t say that lightly, is the “Kolchak, The Night Stalker / Middle Agesâ€Â single from 1994 on Bag of Hammers records (Jimmy The Bud Man! How are ya!!). I was incorrect only on chronology when I wrote on my old blog:

More Texas ineptitude from a short-lived band who nailed it on their first try. Hectic, sloppy and chaotic in all the right places, played about two beats faster than the band themselves can keep up with. Singer has one of those punk rock voices for the ages, all nasaly and fried like a true barroom poet.

Play or Download THE INHALANTS – “Kolchak, The Night Stalkerâ€Â (A-side)

I’ve written in many other places about the legendary 1981 one-camera Target Video of THE FLESH EATERS during the “A Minute To Pray, A Second To Dieâ€Â era, but this is the first evidence I’ve seen of it on the web. I haven’t watched the video itself in at least seventeen years. Here’s a snippet from it – kudos to Classics2DVDdotcom to bringing it to the people.

The most underrated GUN CLUB record in my book, and until the past few years one of the hardest to find, is the five-song 1983 “DEATH PARTYâ€Â EP. This record came after what many, including me, believe to be a very mediocre album, 1982’s “Miamiâ€Â, which is a classic, textbook sophomore slump. After “FIRE OF LOVEâ€Â, one of the greatest debuts of all time and one of the finest American rock records of any era, expectations were through the roof that these Los Angelinos could turn in another ten songs of hopped-up punk rock bluesarama hellfire, but they didn’t even come close, opting instead to let the folks from BLONDIE (!) put their record out, and allowing them to water down the sound and fury considerably. That’s why a year later, when “Death Partyâ€Â came out, it must’ve been a total slap in the face to hear the snarling, fire-and-brimstone backwater blues of the band back in place again. The EP itself came packaged in one of those thin 12â€Â picture sleeves popular at the time, and I never remember seeing it around. I always thought it was an “importâ€Â, and until Sympathy put it out on CD with a bunch of extra live tracks in 2004, my copy was one of the only ones I’d ever seen.

Here’s the hellish title track, easily the best thing the band ever did outside of the ten masterpieces on “FIRE OF LOVEâ€Â.

Play or Download THE GUN CLUB – “Death Partyâ€Â

I know we must’ve converted at least a few doubting thomases last time we posted some of the greatest dubs of all time, so let’s give it another shot & see if we can haul in a few more true believers. Last time we gave you masterpieces from AUGUSTUS PABLO, GLEN BROWN & KING TUBBY and the IMPACT-ALL-STARS, and if you’re so inclined, they’re still available right here. This time I’d like to introduce you to a long scorcher from the late 70s, New York-based WACKIES collective, a group headed up by one Lloyd Barnes and a rotating cast of heavies. These guys recorded their dub 45s and 12â€Â under a multitude of different names, includes BULLWACKIES’ ALL-STARS, WACKIES RHYTHM FORCE, and the plain-simple WACKIES. This one is the title track from a CD called “Nature’s Dubâ€Â, and it’s a total firebreather. Get the whole CD if you dig what you hear.

The second selection this day is from another madman/genius producer, JOE GIBBS. Gibbs worked his magic on a number of hit records from the sixties to the eighties, and he was there at the creation & blossoming of Jamaican dub in the mid 1970s. This track is taken from an outstanding collection called “No Bones For The Dogs – Dubs From The Mighty Two 1974-79â€Â that needs to be on your must-buy list ASAP. Get your groove on in the name of the most high, seen?

Play or Download WACKIES – “Nature’s Dubâ€Â
Play or Download JOE GIBBS AND THE PROFESSIONALS – “I Am Not Ashamed (version)â€Â

Yeah, “that’s what she saidâ€Â, right brother? So sayeth JOHNNY HASH on this absolutely immortal 1993 single that came out on IN THE RED, and is still vinyl-only unless you search high & low for a Japanese CD that had a bunch of old singles from the label. I love the stupid-sloppy slide guitar, the drawly vocals, the “breakdownâ€Â guitar solo, and the general garbage-blues piss take of this whole thing. One critic of low renown called it:

Drunken, animalistic slide guitar blues, backed with precision cardboard-box drumming and barked vocals. A gnarly, no-fidelity blues trash masterpiece that still makes me weep with desire for the LP that never came from these guys.

It’s genius. In fact the 45 was actually called “Blues Is Depressingâ€Â , but I feel like it’s a joyous, rapturous celebration of life the way these yokels play it. Let me know if you agree.

Play or Download JOHNNY HASH – “Pink Lunchboxâ€Â

I’m posting two lost tracks from the halcyon days of do-it-yourself bedroom recording in England, captured in large part by the MESSTHETICS compilations that roll off the presses a couple times a year. These two are uncomped, at least in CD form, and are favorites of mine that I’ve come to know in recent years. I thought it was high time that I shared them – because now I can! The first is a creepy haunter from a band called SUBVERSE. Finding any sort of information about it or them online is impossible, so I’ll tell you what I know. It comes from an LP compilation called “STARFORCE STUDIOS – COMPILATION 1â€Â. I’m going to guess at a date of 1979. That’s when much of these lost sounds were being laid down, and that’s a year that will probably go down as being, on whole, the most depressing in England’s recent history. “Chance Romanceâ€Â has the feel of being recording whilst looking out the window on a 40-degree, fog-shrouded day at dole queues stretched around the block amid a grim miners’ protest. Good times!

DEVIL’S DYKES (pictured here) are a wild-ass party by comparison. This jaunty holler of a number from a Brighton band was originally found on a 1978 comp called “VAULTAGE 78â€Â , and if you like what you hear here, you can grab the whole compilation by clicking over to here (and ’79 and ’80 too). Just promise you’ll come back to Detailed Twang when you’re done.

Play or Download SUBVERSE – “Chance Romanceâ€Â
Play of Download DEVIL’S DYKES – “Fruitlessâ€Â

A podcast you rock-n-roll luvahs might enjoy is one I finished listening to this very morning – the always-great NEST OF VIPERS podcast has a thing on touring bands, sharing their stories of car accidents, cop encounters, hotel fires and Philly cheesesteaks. Chuck Prophet (Green On Red), Anthony Bedard (Icky Boyfriends, Resineators, Gaping Wounds) and Gil Ray (Game Theory, Loud Family) join host Danny “Danny Pâ€Â Plotnick for an hour’s worth of roadmouth. Great fun – download it here.