Brother O’ Brother and The Ghost Wolves, split 7″ on Fonoflo/Romanus Records. 2016. We saw both bands at last weekend Mile of Music in Appleton, WI and I wrote extensively about the Brother O’ Brother show earlier this week. We saw The Ghost Wolves perform on Friday evening at Mill Creek. A duo from Austin, TX, Carley “Carazy” Wolf (guitar & vocals) and Jonathan “Little Hammer” Wolf (drums & vocals) play “a blend of punk rock, delta blues, garage, pop, noise, electro and death-western. Their live shows have been described by one fervent supporter as ‘The Cramps meeting up with The Ramones and taking all the cocaine Hasil Adkins left on the floor.’” They also cite Jon Spencer as an influence, as well as Joan Jett, Tom Waits, The Clash and R.L. Burnside, so that’s pretty damn cool.

Our 7″ is mislabelled (which didn’t take me long to figure out). Side A is supposed to be Brother O’ Brother’s “I Confess” and “I Got It,” both excellent bluesy garage rockers, but in reality the tracks playing are Ghost Wolves’ “Vroom Vroom” (not actually a song, just 2 or so seconds of an engine vroom-vrooming) and “I Got $.” “I Got $” is a slow-grooving, rough rocking burner that showcases Carley’s howling guitar and clear vocals and Jonathan’s power hits. I was unable to find a video for the track or any performances from Mile of Music, but here is a pretty great mini-film of their tour and performance in Japan 2014. Also if you go to their Facebook page and scroll to July 30th, you can see a hilarious video of Brother O’ Brother and The Ghost Wolves doing Pilates.

Runoff groove etchings:

Side A (or is it B?): “Mo Money”

Side B (or is it A?): “Mo Problems, Cream”

And here is a photo from the Mile of Music Facebook feed (taken by Graham Images and Photography) of Brother O’ Brother’s Chris Banta during the show we saw at Chadwick’s.