the pack a.d. Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

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. “Positive Thinking”

sfilzen — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 19:16:04 +0000

The Pack A.D. “Positive Thinking” 2016. Cadence Music. Signed by the band last night at the Back Room Colectivo after their show. We became huge fans of the powerhouse garage punk duo from Canada several years ago after being turned on to them by our buddies Brother O’Brother (Chris Banta and Warner Swopes) who have collaborated with Pack A.D. in the past (I have action figures!).

The Pack A.D. at Back Room Colectivo

Positive Thinking is Maya Miller’s (drums) and Becky Black’s (guitar, vocals) sixth album and one of my favorites; it’s crashing, fuzzed out and catchy as hell. The best of the best is “Yes, I Know,” a track I never tire of and that they played last night right before their encore (Maya with some exaggerated winking: “This is our last song!” – it wasn’t! They came back out for a couple more!). One of the best garage punk songs ever: angry AND danceable! I also love the album opener “So What,” the touch-of-evil “Medium,” the all-out insane rocker “Los Angeles,” the psychedelic edges of both “Gold Eyes” and “Fair Enough,” and Is It So” which is a wall of furious swirling sound.

Becky Black

Maya Miller

The Pack A.D. put on a fantastic show, their second concert of their current tour, and I was thrilled that the turnout last night was so good. The last time they were in Milwaukee, in 2018 at Company Brewing with Brother O’Brother, almost no one was there and I was embarrassed by our city’s poor showing. We had tickets to see them in the spring of 2020 for their It Was Fun While It Lasted release, but we all know what happened to that. So thankful that they’ve finally been able to get back on the road.

I shared this video with practically everyone I ran into this past week to get them to come to last night’s show and I guess it worked!

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The Pack a.d. and Brother O’Brother

sfilzen — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 19:04:56 +0000

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 Pack a.d. “It Was Fun While It Lasted”

sfilzen — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:03:36 +0000

The Pack a.d. “It Was Fun While It Lasted” 2020, limited edition vinyl. I was going to save this just-released album (got it in the mail yesterday) from Canada’s The Pack a.d. (their 8th and, I guess, last LP before they call it quits) for June when we had planned to see the hard-hitting garagey-psych duo of Becky Black (guitar, vocals) and Maya Miller (drums, vocals) perform. But just like every other show we’ve had tickets for, it’s been postponed (maybe cancelled, who knows). So I’m taking it for its maiden spin and WOW! I really really love them. Top track: “It’s OK” – so infectiously dark funky, hooks for days and Becky’s voice is just freaking beautiful while she shreds the shit out of her guitar and Maya pounds the crap out of her drums. “Soul Warden” is also amazing: swirly psychedelia with a super-hard edge. “No Good” is a great angry stomper and “Shake” is just nuts (in the best of ways). There’s a couple of short instrumentals that are super-cool, too: “Gas Station Food” (very psychobilly) and “Check Engine Light” (deep and bluesy) that provide rest stops of sorts for the album. The Pack a.d.’s It Was Fun While It Lasted hits the right balance between lo-fi and quality production: garage-cred for days but still gorgeous sounds flow through the grunge (the slow lilting “Wings” is a great example of this).

We caught The Pack a.d. in 2018 when they toured for their 2017 release Dollhouse here in Milwaukee and it was absolutely criminal how few people were there to see them. I really hope we get a rescheduled date for 2020 and more people realize their brilliance – besides great records they also put on a hell of a show.

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