The Pack a.d. and Brother O’Brother split 7″ on limited edition tri-color vinyl (50 copies), 2020, Romanus Records. Two of the best garage-rock duos out there, back-to-back on vibrant custom vinyl, accompanied by their own hand-crafted action figures (super-limited to 15 sets) including Pack a.d. members Maya Miller (drums) and Becky Black (guitar, vocals) and Brother O’Brother’s Warner Swopes (drums, I’m also pretty positive he painted these himself) and Chris Banta (guitar, vocals).

Side A has The Pack a.d.’s blistering track “Shake” which is stomping, psychedelically lo-fi garage rock and SO GOOD. Side B has two songs from Brother O’Brother: “Cyborg,” a garage-punk face-melting stomper delivered with maximum force and fury, and “This Is Fine,” another thundering all-out rocker whose lyrics, I’m fairly certain, belie the title – everything is not actually fine in 2020. Though this package of awesomeness I received over the weekend is one of the few delights this year; I cannot wait for musicians to start being able to tour again. We had tickets to see Pack a.d. this spring (cancelled, of course) and usually get to see Brother O’Brother at least a few times throughout the year. Not so much in 2020.

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The Hellacopters “Crimson Ballroom” and Rocket from the Crypt “Delorean” split 7″ 1999. Gearhead Records. The Hellacopters’ guitarist from 1998-2008 (and again recently on their live reunion album) Robert “Strangen” Dahlqvist died this past Friday February 3rd at age 40. Dahlqvist replaced Dregen (Andreas Svensson) in 1998 (who continued on with Backyard Babies). “Crimson Ballroom” is a pretty straightforward 70′s influenced hard rocker, heavy on the power chords and screaming guitar solos; much less garagey than the band’s earlier releases. Rocket from the Crypt’s “Delorean” (misspelled on the record’s label as “Delorian”) is definitely more garage revival, though a nice little horn section is thrown in for flavor. The single was included in Gearhead magazine’s #10 issue.

We saw The Hellacopters play in Green Bay, probably in 1999, while they were on tour for Payin’ the Dues. I don’t have much memory of the show, but Joe recalls it as one of the epic ones that also included the Candy Snatchers, the Quadrajets and New Bomb Turks.

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We picked up this single at their show in Milwaukee this past December. “R.O.S.E.” (when played at the correct speed) is a slow-burning heavy bluesy rocker, complete with Brother O’Brother’s signature musical tension provided by Swopes’ tight rhythm that builds and builds and builds before exploding into pounding fury. Add to that Banta’s gospel-tinged lo-fi vocals and power chords and it’s a blistering track that also appears on Live at Radio Radio (Shed House Records, 2016).

Side B has two tracks by Veseria, a band I am not familiar with, but they are also from Indianapolis and according to their bandcamp page are “a 4-piece rock group…their fusion of the raw power of classic rock, early punk beats and the lyrical and melodic tones of American folk music has captured their audiences at home and across the Midwest.” They are on Banta’s Romanus Records label and after listening to “And Also” and “Hunting Accidents,” I can picture watching Veseria at an outdoor summer festival, dancing barefoot in the grass while the sun sets: harmonic, sweet sweeping music.

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