cheater slicks Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Cheater Slicks “Skidmarks”

sfilzen — Tue, 27 May 2025 17:12:05 +0000

Cheater Slicks “Skidmarks” 1998. Crypt Records, “a collection of oddities, rarities and vintage spew.” Or, rather, a comp of Cheater Slicks early-year tracks, covers and unreleased songs. We finally saw Cheater Slicks for the first time this past weekend when they opened for Jon Spencer in Chicago. The band has been around forever, playing their version of grungy garagey punk blues since 1987. Skidmarks is heavy on the early material: the opener “Dark Night” is from an unreleased album from ’89 and also has a couple of songs from their actual ’89 debut On Your Knees (which was, according to the liner notes, recorded in one day on drummer/vocalist’s Dana Hatch’s birthday), including the noise rockers “I Won’t Last Another Day,” “On Your Knees” and “Chaos” (which was released as a single in ’91 by “a mysterious German label”). There’s a few cover songs, too, like their great rendition of 13th Floor Elevators’ “Rollercoaster,” an ass-shaking rendition of The Bell Notes’ hit “I’ve Had It” aka/renamed “I’ve Been Had” and Slick styled, and rockabilly Bill Allen’s “Please Give Me Something” that the Slicks drag through the swamp. There’s a few obscure covers, too, like “The Hunch” (originally by Mad Mike and the Maniacs — literally that band’s only song release), “Can It Be” by The Savoys (their one of two releases) and another one and done release by The Huns “Destination Lonely.” Those last two are from a Cheater Slicks performance on a WMBR radio session in ’92.

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“Set It On Fire!”

sfilzen — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 20:59:31 +0000

“Set It On Fire!” 1993. Dog Meat Records. The Scientists tribute comp by a stellar list of grungy garage-punks including Honeymoon Killers (and when I read the liner notes I discovered that not only is Jon Spencer on guitar on this track, but so is JSBX’s Judah Bauer – also on guitar – and Russell Simins on drums, along with Jerry Teel on vocals/guitar and Lisa Wells on bass), Mudhoney, Cheater Slicks and Laughing Hyenas. The Scientists were an Australian post punk band in the late 70′s and 80′s. Set It On Fire! is a super-solid comp, lo-fi and hard-edged. My top tracks include Honeymoon Killers “Murderess in a Purple Dress,” Cheater Slicks “Set It On Fire,” Star Spangled Banana “Frantic Romantic” (no link to their version but here’s The Scientists playing the original), Mudhoney “We Had Love,” Sugar Shack “Hell Beach,” Philisteins “Teenage Dreamer” and Laughing Hyenas “Solid Gold Hell.” So basically the entire record.

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Cheater Slicks “Don’t Like You”

sfilzen — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 19:20:02 +0000

Cheater Slicks “Don’t Like You” 1995. In The Red Records. Garage-revival punk blues/trash rock, produced by Jon Spencer whose “zonked out stoner” vocals appear on “Sensitive Side,” a creepy-swampy growler. Spencer became a fan of the band when Cheater Slicks opened for Boss Hog around ‘90; they then played shows with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in the early-to-mid 90′s. (Cheater Slicks, like JSBX, are also bass-less. In interesting trivia: the original lineup of the band included Merle Allin, brother of G.G. Allin, on bass. Wonder why that didn’t work out?!) “Motherlode” is another awesome track: a raucous rocker with insane harmonica by Jerry Teel of the Honeymoon Killers, who was also responsible for recording Don’t Like You. “Mystery Ship,” the album’s final track, is low-down dirty trash blues, sparse and sad and a bit scary.

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