The Pack a.d. “Unpersons”

sfilzen — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 18:47:33 +0000

The Pack a.d. “Unpersons” 2011. Limited 10 Year Anniversary edition on “Haunted” glow-in-the-dark green vinyl (2022). Mint Records. Ripping, ass-kicking garage punk from Canadian duo Becky Black (guitar/vocals) and Maya Miller (drums). Unpersons is The Pack a.d.’s fourth LP and probably one of my favorites. I don’t know what is in the atmosphere these past several days but this is another pull that I realized, after choosing it, was produced by Jim Diamond (Dirtbombs bassist, production for White Stripes, etc.) More l0-fi and raw than their later releases – I’d say angrier, too, but most of their stuff has a decidedly pissed-off edge. From an article on Exclaim “In a career defined by loud, grimy garage albums, the Pack a.d.’s 2011 release Unpersons just might be the loudest and grimiest of the bunch.” Unpersons opens with the banger “Sirens” which should have been a hit; it’s soooo good. The super-short “8” is another favorite, hitting hard and fast. “Positronic” is weird, ass-shaking and thrashing all at once. From the Exclaim article: Maya Miller “One of my favourite recording moments was creating the intro to ‘Positronic.’ I recorded my voice through a shitty little toy voice changer while Becky tweaked around on her guitar and Jim played around distorting it on a guitar pedal.” “Cardinal Rule” is buzzed, fuzzed and super-snotty. And “Ride” has such a wall of crashing sound it’s mind-bending to know it’s just the two of them making this much noise. The Pack a.d. do slow down occasionally (but remain pissed!) like on the more garage-blues “Seasick” and the slinky-speed/loud-quiet-loud “Take.”

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The Pack A.D. “Tintype”

sfilzen — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 15:05:27 +0000

The Pack A.D. “Tintype” 2007/2018 (limited edition reissue). 13 MC Music/Mint Records. Two-piece bluesy garage rock from Vancouver, Canada. I really love Pack A.D. – during the pandemic they had a decent sale of their back catalog via their Bandcamp and I scooped up several LP’s, including this one, that I’m just now getting around to listening to. Tintype is Pack A.D.’s debut LP and waaaayyy sparser than their most recent material. According to the reissue’s liner notes (written by Maya Miller, drums), she and guitarist/singer Becky Black had only been practicing together for a few months when they were asked to perform at a BBQ where they met someone wanting to record their album (13 MC Music = self-released) even though they had nothing prepared for either the BBQ or a record, so they did…as Maya quotes (and agrees with) a reviewer they “shrugged themselves into existence.”

Tintype has an early Black Keys/White Stripes vibe in that it’s aughts-era blues/garage rock played by just two musicians that can make a lot of noise. But it’s refreshingly female: Becky’s voice goes from soaring to growling in one line of lyric (“What’s Up There” – a tiny little track that punches hard) and swims in emotion (the slow-burn “Bang“). She has stated that Billie Holiday is a major influence and that shows in the best way. Despite the liner notes’ insistence that they barely knew how to play their instruments, Becky’s blues guitar is simple, classic and perfect; Maya’s drums are at times crashing and at others the lightest of touch (sometimes just a triangle. The whole song). Not surprisingly, my top tracks are the big-(blues)rockers: the album opener “Gold Rush,” the absolutely wild “This Terror,” and “Stray.”

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The Pack a.d. “Unpersons”

The Pack A.D. “Tintype”