GREAT MOMENTS IN SNOTTY VOCAL HISTORY

I don't know anything about the Mourning After. Looking at the sleeve, you might think they were a hard rock outfit, thank you very much Mr. Facial Hair. That's what I thought, but ho-ly shit, is their "Do Your Thing" one nice slab of raucous garage snot rock. It reminded me of what the Gravedigger V sounded like live, which, good as their records were, was never quite successfully captured on vinyl. But that "who you lookin' at?" tone in the vocals manages to cut through even the muddiest production.

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Listen:
The Mourning After - Do Your Thing (streaming) at YouTube Unable to locate an mp3 of this one. That's when this comes in handy. There are others.
The Gravedigger V - She Got mp3 at Mr. Suave

TAKE OUT THE TRASH

If you tried to whittle down what makes a garage band a great garage band, your first priorities might be fuzz, a driving beat, and snotty lyrics. The Gravedigger V had all of that, but they also had a few of the the intangibles that other bands in the second wave of garage bands in the 80s didn't. First of all, they had youth. They were in their teens when the band started, with the lead singer Leighton Koizumi all of sixteen. Because of their relative inexperience, they were technically crude. They did start in an actual garage, and the recordings they left behind were relatively raw and poorly mixed, which brings to mind some of the more obscure regional garage records from the 60s that collectors go nuts over. But the biggee, the secret ingredient if you will, was the voice of Leighton Koizumi. He was a punk, literally, in the old school non-musical vein. His snotty delivery is about as cocky as they come. And to think that he was roughly seventeen when the songs below were recorded. Listen to "No Good Woman," right before the guitar solo, when he quips "Yeah baby, you're ugly!" followed be a "Waaaahhh!" And, pardon me for being over analytical, just listen too the perfectly placed, perfectly grunted "Uuugh!" immediately following the solo. Remind yourself that this guy is barely out of high school. Punk kid.

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Listen:
The Gravedigger V - No Good Woman mp3 at Api.ning
The Gravedigger V - She Got mp3 at Mr. Suave
The Gravedigger V - Be A Caveman (streaming) at Flower Bomb Songs
The Gravedigger V - All Black and Hairy (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
The Gravedigger V - Don't Tread On Me (Live, 2010) at YouTube
Visit:
The Gravedigger V at Facebook
The Gravedigger V at Wikipedia