NO SHIT, THESE BRICKS ARE FROM '66

Maybe we were spoiled. No, not maybe, we were spoiled. In the early eighties, right about the time punk rock had it's hardcore afterbirth, a San Diego band called the Crawdaddys were playing around town offering another route to wild sounds, steeped particularly heavy in early sixties UK rave-up rhythm and blues shit, with none of the knucklehead pit nonsense. For a few years, they were the only real purist outfit playing around town, and being so, they had their own crowd, total diehards, and not all of them retro nazis. Many were just disenfranchised punk rockers that were just not that easily sucked in by hardcore, and wouldn't go near new wave. It retrospect, we were lucky, because not every scene had an, er, alternative, let alone one that was hard to find fault in.

After a few years, as the Crawdaddys were starting to peter out, another related scene was getting wheels. Mirroring the sixties chronologically, a garage scene developed, spearheaded by the Tell-Tale Hearts, a five piece band that included among its members Mike Stax, the former bassist of the Crawdaddys (now in the Loons and top dog at Ugly Things). Like the Crawdaddys, the Tell-Tale Hearts were more fiendish about period nuances than you or I have the patience for, both musically and visually, and they were good, really good. There were others, namely the Gravedigger V, and later the Morlochs, but the Tell-Tale Hearts really got the whole thing rolling, and they were the real detail freaks. 

I ran across a couple live LPs and there's a good chance that these may not pop up again. Put out by an Australian label, they both had an initial run of only 500 pressed. So, take the single songs for a test run. If you dig them,...you know the rest.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Tell-Tale Hearts - It's Not Me mp3 at Mr. Suave
The Tell-Tale Hearts - I Get Up In the Morning mp3 at Che Underground 
The Tell-Tale Hearts - Smokes (live) mp3 at Che Underground 
The Tell-Tale Hearts - At the River's Edge (live) mp3 at Che Underground 
The Live LPs:
The Tell-Tale Hearts - A Bitchin Boss Rave Up With the Tell-tale Hearts (live, 1986) at Surfadelic Click on the green "Rave Up!" 
The Tell-Tale Hearts - Later That Same Night In Springfield (live, 1986) at Surfadelic Click on the green "Dig!"
Visit: 
Tell-Tale Hearts at Che Underground Band profile and discography 
Earlier post about the Crawdaddys