（不足10人评分）

0人收藏

共16首歌曲

在网易云音乐打开

艺人

Them Wranch

语种

英语

厂牌

Ground Swell

发行时间

1999年01月01日

专辑类别

录音室专辑

---

专辑介绍

by Karen E. Graves

After kicking around the Columbus, OH, scene since 1996, in 2000 Them Wranch finally unleashed a full-length effort to fuel the rock & roll fire they had sparked with a handful of 7"s over the years. Driven by ex-Hairy Patt Band member (and namesake) Joe Patt's fierce drum work and equally muscular vocals, along with the twangy guitar and shaky vocals of Andy Ranch and dizzying and dancy basslines by Gerry Morrison, Them Wranch perfected a sound and aura of ass-shakin' rock & roll and, frankly, creepiness. The band established their spooky image through past releases wherein Patt's vicious vocals coupled with lyrics addressing things like a character called "the campus strangler" (from the song of the same name available on the group's Halloween 7", Beware) up the creepy-crawly factor, as do tracks headed by the squeaky-voiced Ranch. "Podunk" (the B-side of the God Bless Them Wranch 7") is a sparse and haunting track about living in a small town with nothing but football, Dairy Queen, and girls who don't love you back and eventually deciding to hang yourself. With their debut full-length, Them Wranch has secured a niche for themselves with a sound that combines crude garage production with dancy, occasionally almost surfy guitars, traces of vintage soul, and songs that still tend to lean toward being rather creepy. "Whip" finds drummer/vocalist Joe Patt posing such unnerving questions as, "I wonder how I would feel in your dress?/Lipstick?/Garter belt?/I wonder how you would feel if you came home and I f*cked you wearing your clothes?" Charming. Similarly creepy is "DNR," wherein bassist Gerry Morrison reveals that "the maggots are my friends." Guitarist Andy Ranch's vocal turn on "Love Need Want Love" seems sort of like a love song with lines like, "I'll love that girl till the end of time," but in light of the eerie songs that precede it, it ends up sounding less like a love song and more like a stalker anthem. Patt takes a more comic stab at Jerry Bryan's "Vampire Daddy" (with the addition of lyrics pulled from 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny"), making it seem that perhaps all of this spookiness is tongue in cheek, but don't count on it. Spine-chilling or not, Them Wranch writes some overwhelmingly catchy tracks; high among them are "Baby, I'm Sending You Back" and "Premium Rock," with their big-group choruses, handclaps, and unstoppable grooves. Drawing elements from rock, garage rock, soul, and psychedelia (everyone from Led Zeppelin to the Zombies show through as influences), Them Wranch shares common musical ground with groups like the Country Teasers, the Shams, and the Oblivians/Reigning Sound, though Them Wranch keeps things a little more caffeinated and danceable than those groups. "You may come from the underground/But you're strictly mainstream/More popular than Jesus/Outsell the Beatles and Stones," yowls Joe Patt on the super-cool "Satan Sold Out." What could be more rock & roll than calling Satan a poser? As far as production is concerned, most of the record sounds like it was recorded live in someone's garage, but that actually adds to its charm, as its raggedness provides an accurate picture of the group's raucous live sound. The production and the songs in general add to the radiant sense that this album could just as easily be a rediscovered '60s gem as a brand-new disc. Earn indie cred points at parties by mentioning that the album's title refers to the fact that the band lived/practiced on East Maynard Avenue in Columbus, OH. Bonus points for having one of the coolest album covers ever. The cover is comprised of something like 50 matchbook covers painted by Andy Ranch to depict album covers by the likes of the Who, Led Zeppelin, Spinal Tap, Iggy Pop, Roy Orbison, and the Country Teasers. However, each of the album titles, and many of the photos, have been altered to include Them Wranch. For example, Guided by Voices' Vampire on Titus becomes Vampire on Maynard. Very snappy.