Frigg A-Go-Go
Monday, December 22nd, 2008Everything Around Me / Pre-Teen Love 7″
360 Twist!, 1997
There’s never been a shortage of 1960s-style garage punk — pick any subsequent decade and you’re likely to find at the very least a few dozen bands firing off some raw ’60s guitar stompers — but finding a band doing this style with that extra but of spunk and spirit to stand out from the crowd is a rare thing. This mid-90s smoker from the long gone 360 Twist! label is one of those rare finds, perfectly capturing some of the finest recorded moments of this classic Lafayette, Louisiana band. While the rest of the Friggs’ catalog is pretty good, if not standard fare, this little gem really delivers the goods with an electrified charge and snarling attitude, balanced by some well-placed electric piano (the finest I’ve heard since The Misfits “Cough/Cool”) and sharp-n-snappy punk guitar. “Everything Around Me” is the ultimate fuck-it-all song, with spitefully fun snotty vocals that come off like the fratboy cousin of the Dead Boys’ Stiv Bators fronting a hopped-up version of the Sonics. Neither track breaks the 2-minute mark, making this 45 short, sweet, and snappy. It’s perfect.
DOWNLOAD:
Frigg A-Go-Go – “Everything Around Me”
Frigg A-Go-Go – “Pre-Teen Love”
LINKS:
Frigg A-Go-Go on MySpace
Easily one of the most interesting groups of the 1990s indie underground, the Thinking Fellers had a slew of releases on the Matador and Communion labels, with this 4-song EP capturing their finest and most-focused songs. You can guarantee that every TFUL 282 record has its moments of weirdo brilliance, bubbling up from sprawling tracks that could effortlessly shift from warbling tape loops to the unlikely sounds of mandolin, banjo, and french horn. I caught them live a couple times in the mid-1990s and was impressed not only with how entertaining their live show was, but with how easily they could trade instruments and singing duty, all while delivering some truly interesting music. It’s a risky endeavor for most bands to take this freewheeling approach to making music, but TFUL 282, as their name implies, were indeed thoughtful folks who seemed to be driven by the endless possibilities of making cool, quirky music. The first track, “Hurricane” is a beautifully constructed, sweetly haunting song that uses off-key tuning to great effect, sounding something like a bizarro version of the Pixies doing a Slint cover, while “Undertaker” further employs off-key clashing that builds into a rollicking, locomotive song featuring vocals that slip into a falsetto yodel. Sounds crazy on paper — and it is crazy — but somehow it all works to great effect. Side two kicks off with the catchy “Million Dollars,” featuring a nicely treated guitar effects, before closing with another well-constructed song, “Father,” which somehow strings along nervy Dead C-style vocals and some buzzing beehive guitar work before mutating into a bluegrass stomp, complete with banjo and a hillbilly twang. Again, it sounds crazy, but somehow it works. Admonishing the Bishops remains one of the most interesting records of the 1990s and it’s a damn shame that it’s out of print and relatively unknown to the indie legions.
Free Gold! LP