honeymoon killers Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Honeymoon Killers “The Loved, The Lost and the Last”

sfilzen — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 22:07:09 +0000

Honeymoon Killers “The Loved, The Lost and the Last” 1991/2022. Bang! Records, limited edition. Today, June 18th, is Judah Bauer’s 53rd birthday (b. 1971). Judah appears on this on this previously unreleased album from the early 90’s along with Jon Spencer and Russell Simins of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, plus Jerry Teel (Chrome Cranks, Little Porkchop, lots more), Lisa Wells (Little Porkchop) and Marcellus Hall (Railroad Jerk). The majority of tracks are covers of blues and blues-based rock, stripped bare and recorded pretty lo-fi. Top covers are The Rolling Stones’ “Who’s Driving Your Plane?,” The Velvet Underground’s “Guess I’m Falling in Love” and Otis Redding’s “Love Man.” There are a few originals too, upon which Judah is playing (he’s not on the aforementioned tracks): “Dead Again” which definitely has Bauer’s chugga-chugga JSBX blues guitar sound, the exploding noise rock’d “Doesn’t Matter” and the messy garage rocker “What’s That?”

“Who’s Drivin’ Your Plane?,” “Dead Again,” “Joe’s House” (another Honeymoon Killers original – Judah play acoustic guitar and organ on this one) and “Love Is All Around” (by The Troggs) were previously released on the Sing Sing (1984 – 1994) compilation and “Murderess In A Purple Dress” appeared on the Scientists tribute album Set It On Fire!.

From the liner notes regarding Side A: “These were songs we played for Peter and Kelly’s wedding. All love songs. This was the only time we were ever a wedding band and this is part of what was going to be our wedding album. Love was in the air and we did the best we could to make the air sound like love.” Side B: “‘Who’s Driving Your Plane” was recorded during the Hung Far Low sessions. This version unreleased until now. The rest of this side is the last session and was recorded at the end of our last European tour. We had been asked to do a song for a Scientists tribute, so the session was mostly for that. I knew this would be the last and this is how it went down.”

And because I always have post at least one old photo (I don’t have that many), here’s one of Judah from 1987 taken by me at our friends’ apartment in Appleton, sorry if you’ve seen it before.

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Honeymoon Killers “Hung Far Low”

sfilzen — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 19:37:58 +0000

Honeymoon Killers “Hung Far Low” 1991. Fist Puppet Records, limited edition red vinyl. Today, February 5th, is Jon Spencer’s 59th birthday (b. 1965) so I’m taking out a pre-JSBX album in celebration. Hung Far Low was the Honeymoon Killers fifth and final release. It has both Jon Spencer (on guitar and, hilariously, trombone) and Russell Simins (drums, naturally, plus some vocals), plus Jerry Teel on guitar/vocals and Lisa Wells on bass/vocals. Like most Spencer projects, it’s noisy blues punk, heavy on the noise part. My top tracks are “Kansas City Milkman” which has a killer groove, the noise-rock freak out “You Can’t Do That,” the very JSBXish “Tanks a Lot” and the thundering, almost grungy “Whole Lotta Crap.” Also of note: although all songwriting credits go to Jerry Teel, I’m pretty positive “Mr. Big Stuff” is a greatly mangled iteration of the original “Mr. Big Stuff” by Jean Knight (1971, Stax Records). No link for Honeymoon Killer’s version so you’ll just have to find a copy of this record to hear it, but here’s a live video of the band playing a few tracks from Hung Far Low from 1992 in Germany:

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The Honeymoon Killers “The Honeymoon Killers From Mars”

sfilzen — Tue, 02 May 2023 16:30:10 +0000

The Honeymoon Killers “The Honeymoon Killers From Mars” 1984. Fur Records. The debut album from noisy punk blues rockers; “recorded in four track horror fidelity beneath the Sixth Street Butcher Shop NYC” (liner notes). Proto-Boss Hog/JSBX, this early Honeymoon Killers features constants Jerry Teel (guitar/vocals) and Lisa Wells (bass/vocals) but not Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Russell Simins on drums (he played from about ’85-’91) or Boss Hog’s Cristina Martinez (she is on their fourth LP Turn Me On, ’87). Jon Spencer joined the band for the Honeymoon Killers ’91 release Hung Far Low. It’s lo-l0-fi horror film styled punk blues and sparse experimental noise rock that feels pretty much the opposite of most music recorded in ’84 (which was mostly big, glossy and highly produced with lots of synths). Tracks like “Shake” are hypnotic and psychedelic, others feel like they really could be on a horror movie soundtrack (“Cat People” and the disturbing “Rooms of Doom”), and some are just messy messy noise with a steady beat (like their theme song “Honeymoon Killers”) or really rough Cramps-eseque psyschobilly (‘Cornbread Fed”). The two cover songs are…interesting. “Ubangi Stomp” is almost unrecognizable as compared to the original and one reviewer states that The Honeymoon Killers From Mars has “the world’s worst version of Bo Diddley’s ‘Who Do You Love?'” He’s not entirely wrong, but it’s also so gloriously terrible that it’s….good?!

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Honeymoon Killers “Kansas City Milkman”

sfilzen — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 17:48:47 +0000

Honeymoon Killers “Kansas City Milkman” 1991. Insipid Records. Sludgy noise rock from Jerry Teel (guitar/vocals; Chrome Cranks, Knoxville Girls, Little Porkchop), Jon Spencer (guitar, trombone!!!; JSBX, Pussy Galore, Boss Hog), Russell Simins (drums; JSBX, Butter O8, SERVICE) and Lisa Wells (bass, vocals; Little Porkchop). The single appears on their ’91 LP Hung Far Low. Side A’s “Kansas City Milkman” is dark and grungy, with some Ministry-esque industrial noise-rock thrown in for good measure. Side B’s “Nothin'” is less beaty, more chaotic noise rock, still really dark and sludgy. While I can’t find a link for “Nothin,'” I did find a shitty-quality concert video from a ’92 Honeymoon Killers show in Germany in which they perform a bit of “Kansas City Milkman” and instead of Jon on guitar, Judah Bauer (JSBX) is playing.

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Honeymoon Killers “Live”

sfilzen — Wed, 04 May 2022 17:56:25 +0000

Honeymoon Killers “Live” 1991. Munster Records. Three live noise rock tracks (one from O’Cayz Corral in Madison!) featuring all three of the members of the soon-to-be Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Jon Spencer, Judah Bauer and Russell Simins. Also listed are founders Jerry Teel and Lisa Wells are on guitar/vocals and bass/vocals, of course, as is Marce on guitar. (I believe Marce is Marcellus Hall, also from Railroad Jerk.) I’m pretty sure not all of those credited played on all of the tracks but maybe? Side A is “Who’s Driving Your Plane,” a Rolling Stones cover, that was recorded at CBGB’s in NYC. It’s fucked up blues, with squealing harmonica and trashy guitars and vocals. Side B has “Training Wheels,” which is the track from O’Cayz. I was living in Madison in ’91 but I definitely did not go to this show. From the sound of the audience at the end of the song, I don’t think many other people did either. “Training Wheels” is distorted heavy punk blues and sounds the most like the future JSBX of the three songs so I’m guessing Spencer, Judah and Russell may be playing. The last track, “Madwoman Blues,” from The Old Miami in Detroit, sounds exactly like its title: totally insane noise rock with Lisa Wells likely on vocals. The recording quality is shitty but with noise rock, it really doesn’t matter. I’m so happy to have found this limited edition gem.

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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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Honeymoon Killers “Turn Me On”

sfilzen — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 20:45:57 +0000

Honeymoon Killers “Turn Me On” 1987. Buy Our Records. Noise-rock via New York/New Jersey, Turn Me On is the band’s fourth studio LP, this one particularly notable for Cristina Martinez on guitar (and some vocals). She must have been only around 16 years old at the time; a couple of years she later joined Jon Spencer to form Boss Hog (their EP Drinkin’ Lechin’ & Lyin’ from ‘89 also features Honeymoon Killers’ founder, guitarist and frontman Jerry Teel). As noise rock, Turn Me On is definitely noisy, full of distortion and growling, but it also has a dark psychobilly/campy horror movie vibe, especially on tracks like “Dolly w/a Dick,” “You Thrill Me,” “Fingerlickin’ Spring Chicken” and “Octopussy,” making the album far more melodic – catchy at times even! – than a lot of other noise rock albums. “Choppin’ Mall” is particularly great, with a Bo Diddley-esque rhythm and a harmonica solo that portends the punk blues sound of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (Mr. Judah Bauer!). Punk blues with a lot of crazed feedback and distortion is also present on “Dazed ‘n’ Hazey” (a great track!). I’m not as fond of the less melodic noise rock track “Flophausen” but other than that I’m super-psyched to have this record in our collection (it’s a recent acquisition, found on Record Store Day when our local record shops bring out the really cool stuff).

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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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