Turbo Fruits “Turbo Fruits” 2007/2018. Reissue on Romanus Records in the “Simon Sandz” custom vinyl variant (50 copies, sand-filled, limited edition). I’m super-late to the Turbo Fruit party – the eponymous Turbo Fruits debuted over a decade ago, originally on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! Records and now for first time on wax – but when Romanus Records says jump on this super-amazing Simon Says vinyl interpretation, I say how high?! (and sneak off to the restroom to surreptitiously huddle over my phone during work hours to order my copy at the announced release time). What a party – it’s awesome! Lo-fi, upbeat garage punk rock via Nashville with a heavy dose of playfulness. Even the weightier tracks, like “Volcano” which is full of heavy trash, have a boppy dance party vibe. The fun is akin to 80′s Cali snotty surf punk: “20th I Was Blue” on which singer Jonas Stein gleefully shouts “Girl, you’re dead to me” over surfy riffs and beats or the whistling intro to “Pockets Full of Thistles.” Traditional blues progressions make appearances and are then promptly put through a garage punk shredder i.e. on “The Run Around.” Besides surfy punk influences and traditional blues, there are also 60′s classic rock nods, i.e. the heavy guitar and drums on the excellent “Poptart” (which “taste so good”). And oh my god, “Devo Girl” is brilliant! Punky, ridiculous fun (“Devo girl, oh shit here she comes!”). All of the tracks on this 15-song LP are originals except the cover “Ramblin Rose,” written by Fred Burch and Marijohn Wilkin and first recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis, which is a crazy mashup of Zeppelin rock and blues, trashy garage and punk making it utterly original.

The runout groove on both sides “Jonas told me to grow my hair out on stickam” Chris Banta, mad genius behind Romanus Records, says about this runout etching “There was this terrible chat service called stickam that they did a q&a on which meant you had to get a account. I asked him if i should cut my hair or let it grow and he said “grow it out, be somebody 😀”