Showing posts with label Fastbacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fastbacks. Show all posts

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Fastbacks: Tributes (1991-1998)


(A re-up for Eastvan)

One consequence of the CD glut of the nineties was the dawn of the so-called 'tribute album', in which a a range of modern exponents of a genre (especially underground ones) would record a cover from a formative artist like The Ramones or Nick Lowe or The Shaggs or what have you. Typically, the results of all this tributing varied all the way from mediocre to middling. No matter how good the original band and no matter how many good newer bands they'd cobbled together, most of these collections just came off as throwaways. (It's indicative that that the only CD I ever kept from this sub-heading was one called Tulare Dust which featured alt.country acts covering Merle Haggard).





One band who could always guarantee to liven up these dull albums was Seattle's The Fastbacks (more HERE). Partly it was that the band was just on a roll around the time these tributes began mushrooming up but mostly it was because, as a band who'd put out their first single in 1981, Kurt Bloch & co were a rocking link between the first wave of punk and the nineties underground explosion. Hence this MRML-compiled collection of Fastbacks covers, MOST of which are from some long out-of-print, fly-by-night label's half-baked tribute CD.




So, MRML readers, what's your favourite Fastbacks cover song? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!
           
                                                     
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Friday, November 23, 2012

The Fastbacks: Alone in a Furniture Warehouse...10" (1996)



Alone In A Furniture Warehouse Scaring You Away Like A Hotel Mattress  is a 10" EP (and CD) that was released by Spain's Munster Records in the last couple of years of the Fastbacks (more HERE) career. I've only recently begun to appreciate how the band stayed solid right to the end, and this 10"  is fine proof of their perserverance.


Tracklist
1         No Information     2:43    
2         The Ladders     2:03    
3         The Buried Treasure Was Crap     1:43    
4         All In Order     3:01    
5         Wait It Out     2:20    
6         Sign Of The Times     3:12    
7         Eyes Of A Child     3:12    
8         Alone In A Furniture Warehouse     3:15




What do you think of the late-period Fastbacks releases, like this one,? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

The Fastbacks: And After All (1996)




Did Fastbacks' (more HERE) guitarists Kurt Bloch just write too damn many great songs?





Tracklist
A     And After All     2:18    
B     Marionette     4:53    


So,do you think Mr. Bloch's awesome prolificness worked against him? Or did it just work out well for the rest of us? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!


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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Fastbacks: Wait It Out (1994)



Seattle's masters of power-punk, The Fastbacks (more HERE), rip out two more killer tracks on this 1994 Munster Records single.





Tracklist
A Wait It Out (Al Bloch)
B The Jester (Rusty Willoughby)
(Outside spine on gatefold reads: that was PRETTY GOOD now how 'bout some ROCK N ROLL!)




So, are you enjoying this string of Fastbacks rarities or what??????
If so, leave us a COMMENT!
If you don't, I'm gonna have to start a series on sequestration and the Bush tax cuts!


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Monday, November 19, 2012

The Fastbacks/Gas Huffer Split 7" (1992)


This 1992 single pairs the Very, Very Powerful Fastbacks (more HERE) with those Janitors of Tomorrow, Gashuffer.





Tracklist
A     Gas Huffer  –     King Of Hubcaps   3:12    
B     Fastbacks   –     Lose                       3:07




So, what's your take on this split? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!


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Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Fastbacks do UK Subs!




In 1993 former Fastbacks' drummer Duff McKEgan's then-current band (Guns N' Roses) did a UK Subs obscurity ("Down on the Farm") on their covers album ("The Spaghetti Incident"). So to prove who knew their UK punk better, The Fastbacks (more HERE) absolutely ripped-through a deep album track and two B-sides ("Rat Race", "I Live in a Car"and "Telephone Numbers") on this 1995 split with Australia's The Meices.








So, MRML readers
How do you think the Fastbacks fare as a UK Subs cover band??
Let us know in the COMMENTS section!
           
                                                     
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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Fastbacks: All In Order (1994)





I'd argue that 1987's ...And His Orchestra is The Fastbacks (more HERE) finest moment. But a good case could be made for 1994's Answer the Phone Dummy, which which features some of Kurt Bloch's finest songs, like "Waste of Time". This 1994 single contains some excellent outtakes from that album (including the title track!)


A    All In Order 3:01
B1   Answer The Phone, Dummy 0:52
B2   Allison 1:17





So, MRML readers
What's your take on "Answer the Phone, Dummy"?
Let us know in the COMMENTS section!
           
                                                     
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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Fastbacks: Now is the Time



These spiffy lo-fi Fastbacks (more HERE) recordings from the early 80's only saw release in 1992.

Tracklist

A1    Now Is The Time   2:56    
A2    Sometimes             2:53    
B      Was Late               3:25     

So, MRML readers
More Fastbacks rarities?
Let us know in the COMMENTS section!
           
                                                     
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Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Fastbacks: Live In America (1988)



Another official but out-of-print live Fastbacks (more HERE) show, this one is from '88, still with big hooks, big guitars and big sadness....






FORMAT : LP
LABEL  : Lost And Found
CAT NO : LF016
YEAR   : 1991

TRACKLIST
A01 Love You More
A02 Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
A03 Yesterday At Midnight
A04 Roll Away The Stone
A05 Swallow My Pride
A06 In America
B01 I Need Some Help
B02 Better Than Before
B03 Only At Night
B04 What Will They All Say?
B05 Don't Cry For Me
B06 In The Winter

All songs recorded live at The Vogue, Seattle (September, 21st 1988) and Seattle Center Mural Amphitheater (August 15th, 1988)




So, MRML readers, what's your favourite Fastbacks cover song? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!
           
                                                     
Support the band

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Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Fastbacks: Tributes (1991-1998)



One consequence of the CD glut of the nineties was the dawn of the so-called 'tribute album', in which a a range of modern exponents of a genre (especially underground ones) would record a cover from a formative artist like The Ramones or Nick Lowe or The Shaggs or what have you. Typically, the results of all this tributing varied all the way from mediocre to middling. No matter how good the original band and no matter how many good newer bands they'd cobbled together, most of these collections just came off as throwaways. (It's indicative that that the only CD I ever kept from this sub-heading was one called Tulare Dust which featured alt.country acts doing Merle Haggard).





One band who could always guarantee to liven up these dull albums was Seattle's The Fastbacks (more HERE). Partly it was that the band was just on a roll around the time these tributes began mushrooming up but mostly it was because, as a band who'd put out their first single in 1981, Kurt Bloch & co were a rocking link between the first wave of punk and the nineties underground explosion. Hence this MRML compiled collection of Fastbacks covers, MOST of which are from some long out-of-print, fly-by-night label's half-baked tribute CD.




So, MRML readers, what's your favourite Fastbacks cover song? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!
           
                                                     
Support the band

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iTunes

SubPop

Homepage (sorta)



Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Fastbacks: In the Winter (1989)



So before taking a break to offer encouragement to those in the path of Hurricane Sandy yesterday, we were talking about great Fastbacks albums (more HERE). Which leads us to today's question about your favourite single/E.P. by The Fastbacks. Their first single "It's Your Birthday" or Play Five of Their Favorites would be my amongst my first choices but the band released a veritable slew of excellent singles over their carrier such as this awesome seven inch that puts their mournful-yet-hummable track, "In the Winter", in the spotlight!






So, MRML readers, what's your favourite Fastbacks single? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!



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Monday, October 29, 2012

The Fastbacks: Live at the Crocodile Cafe (1996)



Well as we're in the midst of a good series on Seattle's Lords of pop/punk/rock, The Fastbacks (more HERE), it's time to ask you for YOUR favourite Fastbacks albums. Personally, I'd argue that ...And His Orchestra owns the first slot, followed closely by Very Powerful Motor and Answer the Phone, Dummy. After that there would be a few competitors (including a couple of compilations and their last album, Day That Didn't Exist) vying for fourth place.






Tracklis
A1 Out Of The Charts         0:55
A2 Run No More             1:53    
A3 Hung On A Bad Peg         1:41    
A4 The Light`s On You         4:03    
A5 On The Wall             3:46    
A6 Went For A Swim         1:44    
A7 Old Adress Of The Unknown     3:08    
B1 Under The Old Lightbulb     1:34    
B2 I´m Cold             1:30    
B3 In The Observatory         3:44    
B4 On Your Hands         2:22    
B5 They Don´t Care         2:18    
B6 Save Room For Me         2:56    
B7 Rat Race             1:56    

Produced for the "I would like to da that" brothers.

Recorded live with the Crystal Park Mobile Studio.

All songs recorded live, June 26, 1995 at the Crocodile Café, Seattle, Wa, except for one line in "In The Observatory" that Kim forgot.

Issued in 10" gatefold sleeve.
  



So, what's your favourite Fastbacks album? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!


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Friday, October 26, 2012

The Fastbacks: Bike, Toy, Gift, Clock (1990)

(A re-imagined re-up for Brushback!)

Almost twenty years ago, August 19th 1991, I saw The Fastbacks hand Fugazi their ass.




The Fastbacks showed the lords of Dischord, who, in all fairness did spend the night in riot control mode, how fresh, alive and thrilling a long-standing punk band could sound. There, in the stultifying confines of a North Vancouver rec center, they outshone the headliners (who'd earned their legend as a locomotive live act with sweat, blood and phlegm) by reeling off one unheard hit after another. After that, I tried to cram their entire history (12"'s, 7"'s, CD re-issues etc.) into one, rainy fall and winter. Never regretted a note of it.





Just to get you started here's the FBX (Kurt Bloch, Kim Warnick, Lulu Gargiulo* plus a drummer, any drummer***) playing live. This show from 1988, lays out the twin-female-vocal pop onslaught backed by BIG ROCK guitars sound ("The Runaways join Cheap Trick and cover Buzzcocks songs" kinda approximates it) that the band would perfect over the next twenty years while ignoring the fashions of each day.

1     Only At Night         2:15    
2     What Wll They All Say?  2:36    
3     Don't Cry For Me     3:28    
4     In The Winter         3:23    
5     I Need Some Help     2:59    
6     Better Than Before     3:21    
7     Always Tomorrow     4:23    
8     Brighton Rock        4:00    
9     Lose     3:03    
10     In America         4:22    
11     Yesterday At Midnight     4:48    
12     Roll Away The Stone    2:47    
13     Swallow My Pride    2:10    
14     Love You More        1:22    
15     Wrong, Wrong, Wrong     3:11    
16     Trouble Sleeping     0:29    

Songs 1 to 10 were recorded 15, August 1988 at Seattle Center Mural Amphitheater.
Songs 11 to 16 were quite recorded 21, September 1988 at Club Vogue. 





Speaking of comments, give us you take on the Fastbacks and let us know if you wanna hear more because there is a LOT of out-of-print material floating around!!


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* Lulu Gargiulo was on hiatus during this period.

** Yes, at one point it was future G N' R man, Duff McKegan

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Fastbacks: Win, Lose or Both


While a CD with thirteen bonus tracks of 1998's Win Lose or Both is in-print, I needed to post the four-song version because it contains my favourite Fastbacks cover (alongside their version of "Midnight Confessions"). The song in question is "Book of Revelation" by Dr. Frank from his band, The Mr T Experience's career defining album, Milk, Milk Lemonade. There's sometimes an admirable humility in an older song-writer, especially a master one, taking on a song by a comparatively newer writer. A cover that sounds fantastic and underscores the brilliance of the original.



Book Of Revelation

My foundation ever unshaken
nothing but life and devastation
being so together it seemed whatever
till I read your book of revelation
probably I'd be much better off not knowing
but you were so sloppy now your slip is showing
dangerous and jaded self-perpetuated
cute but over-rated
you'd do everything just to look distracted
never unattractive but overacted
it didn't fall apart till I put it together
then just a paragraph changed my life forever
when you know the ending open wide and read it
how you made your bed and now you have to eat it
now I get to keep it all I ever needed
so why do I still feel cheated
I can't believe my eyes what I saw last night
what I know today book of revelation
so now you finally got to say
that you really felt that way
and it hit me pretty hard
and though we've carried it so far
I know that's the way things are today
that's the way they are
I can't make up my mind what I must decide
what I have to say book of revelation

Dr. Frank



Win, Lose or Both link is in the comments


Speaking of comments, give us your take on this Dr. Frank cover.

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P.S. Last in a series of TEN Fastbacks posts!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Fastbacks: Alone in a Furniture Warehouse...(1996)


Alone in a Furniture Warehouse Scaring You Away Like a Hotel Mattress link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, please leave one!

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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Fastbacks: And After All (1996)


Did Kurt Bloch just write too many great songs?


Fastbacks - And After All

And After All link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, give us your take on the prolific pen of Mr. Bloch.

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Monday, August 9, 2010

Fastbacks: Wait It Out


Seattle's masters of power-punk rip out two more killer tracks on this 1994 Munster Records single.


Wait It Out link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, give us your review of this little slab of vinyl.

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Sunday, August 8, 2010

The Fastbacks do UK Subs!


In 1993 former Fastbacks' drummer Duff McKEgan's then-current band (Guns N' Roses) did a UK Subs obscurity ("Down on the Farm") on their covers album ("The Spaghetti Incident"). So to prove who knew their UK punk better, The Fastbacks absolutely ripped-through a deep album track and two B-sides ("Rat Race", "I Live in a Car"and "Telephone Numbers") on this 1995 split with Australia's The Meices.


The Fastbacks - I Live in A Car


Fastbacks/Meices link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, give us your review of these Subs covers

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While finishing this off, I was reminded of the fact that Willfully Obscure posted this ages ago in their excellent, on-going series "Splitting the Difference".

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Fastbacks/Gas Huffer Split 7"


This early nineties single pairs the Very, Very Powerful Fastbacks with those Janitors of Tomorrow, Gashuffer.





Fastbacks/Gas Huffer Split 7" link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, give us your review of this little slab of vinyl.

Support the band

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Homepage (sorta)

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