The Go “Whatcha Doin’”

sfilzen — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 21:38:37 +0000

The Go “Whatcha Doin’” 1999/2019. 20th anniversary reissue on orange vinyl (“summer sun variant),” Third Man Records. Originally released on Sub Pop Records (I’m pretty sure we have the original CD from ‘99 around here somewhere), The Go’s first album featured the then not-famous Jack White on guitar (he left the band after the album’s release). I LOVED this album when it originally came out, a fabulous mix of Detroit grungy garage punk in the spirit of MC5 mixed with glammy psychedelic elements (T. Rex, especially). Jack White remixed the reissue from the original reel-to-reel tapes and issued it as part of the Third Man Vault Package series (#41). The package also comes with another LP, Ferdinand Attic Demos and a 7″ single (studio outtakes of “Keep on Trash” and “Time for Moon”) plus a 30+ photo book of the band at various bars and recording studios around Michigan. My favorite tracks from Whatcha Doin’ have always been the gritty glam-psych “Summer Sun Blues” and “Keep on Trash” (both of which I put on mixtapes back in the day) but also great are the title track “Whatcha Doin,’” the 60′s garage-goes-pop flavored “But You Don’t Know” and “Suzy Don’t Leave,” the T.Rex dead-ringer “You Can Get High” and the grungy ass-shaker “Time For Moon.” I’m not sure why it’s been so long since I’ve listened to this record in its entirety but it’s definitely going back into more regular rotation.

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MC5 “’66 Breakout!”

sfilzen — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 15:33:43 +0000

MC5 “’66 Breakout!” 1966/1999. Total Energy Records. Today, September 14th, is MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith’s birthday (b. 1949 d. 1994). This album is a compilation put together by Wayne Kramer from MC5′s early recordings and demos. Some of the tracks were recorded at Cody High School, complete with kids howling in the background (”Looking At You” and “Black To Comm” – Kramer calls “Black To Comm” the band’s “traditional room clearing device. People didn’t start to get this kind of playing till much later at the Grande Ballroom. Dropping acid helped.”). A few were laid down in Kramer’s mom’s basement (including the Van Morrison cover of “Baby Please Don’t Go”), one (”Break Time”) at a Polish wedding! One of my favorite MC5 songs, recorded at a normal studio during their first true studio session, appears on the comp: “I Can Only Give You Everything.”

According to Kramer’s liner notes, “The MC5 on this record are at the beginning of the process of finding out who we were. Not yet the zealous revolutionaries to come. Not yet conscious of the work of Coltrane and Sun Ra or Archie Shepp or Albert Ayler, but stretching and searching for own voice. Working out these new ideas in music. Pushing the sound further than any of our contemporaries in the Detroit music scene.”

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The Go “Whatcha Doin’”

MC5 “’66 Breakout!”