Wildfang - The Promised Airwaves

Here is a list of things I like:

"Wild Thing" Covers
When bands say their name in songs
Jangly guitars with over-done out of tune vocals
80s private press records

Now fall to the floor and weep as all of these are combined into one. I am not shitting you, the very first track is a Wild Thing cover where the singer screams "WILDFANG!" instead of "Wild Thing!" Overall it's filled with summertime roofjams, somewhat akin to early gulcher stuff, though more sincere and less raunchy. Instead of being about ladies and doing things to them, you get songs about wanting to be a drummer, like Ringo! I think i read somewhere the band was from Brooklyn, probably some puerto rican neighborhood because there's for sure some latin vibes, even a straight-up latin-beat song called Rico-A-Mundo. Oh lordy I just noticed that once of the band's thousand names is "The Unemployed Ricans." This is a total summer grower.

Wildfang - Promised Airwaves

being poor sucks

Some time in the winter I played a show with those dudes from Math Balance Volumes and Natalie Wiseblood. We had a "totally rad time" and everyone got awesome everywhere. When the night was closing down and we got to trading cds and tapes one of the homeboys from MBV pulls out a CD-R and starts talking about some super-rare mid-west garage comp he found at the salvation army. HOLY SHIT. I'd been looking for this comp for fucking ever. Nowhere to be found, and homie picks it up at a second hand store. Well I guess he sold it for a few hundo (can't really blame him....maybe i can i dunno) but not before digitizing that shit and giving a copy to little ole' me.

This comp is insane. There are some LEGENDARY bands on this comp, and it's from goddamn 1967. I'll admit there are a few not-super-essential cuts on here, but there are some truly wrecked psyched-out jammers on here that bring it way over the top. This guy right here is a true historical relic.

MONEY MUSIC

Sexual Milkshake - Space Gnome (and other hits)

The only thing that bummed me out about this 7" was that it was supposed to come with a paper mask as one of the five(!) outrageous inserts, but whoever owned it before me must've been the coolest kid at their teen-beat-themed Halloween on Mars party. Garage Rock Knuckleheads partying down in 1990, with a bunch of goofy tape sound-bytes that culminate in a rad found soundy tape jam. To be perfectly honest I bought this because I couldn't tell if I should be playing it at 45 or 33. If only I had found this before I stopped doing that robotussin binge thing.

LICK THE TOAD

The Tiles

According to the back of the sleeve these Boche teenage garage-rockers won some radio station battle of the bands in 1966 (the year of our lord) and got to record two cuts at the Saarlaendischer Rundfunk station. I'm telling you, these cabbage loving hep-katze's bring the groovin' beats, loosey goosey harmonies, chewed up and spit out guitar tone, and that nice rotary club atmosphere only 16-year-olds with matching uniforms can provide. And you gotta love the groovy kraut mama with wicked midriff.

The Tiles