Reviews

Razor Bob's Closet

Ritchie Magnum & the Demolitions Ritchie Magnum & the Demolitions cassette

Five songs of fuzzed-out, instrumental surf rock. Toe-tapping, catchy tunes all heavy on the distorted electric guitar. With no information in the tape and no online presence, I’ve got to work to try to give some information here. RITCHIE MAGNUM is from Tacoma, Washington and was the singer/lead guitarist in stoner heavy metal band COSMIC TRASH, ditching the bongs and the microphones for some twang and tremolo, and if you ask me it’s the right move. There’s nothing overly remarkable here and RITCHIE surely isn’t reinventing the wheel with surf music, but maybe that’s a good thing. “Ponderosa” gives us a pretty clear off-take on “Rumble,” while the guitar lick in “Gimme Yer Bag” is sure to swim around in your brain long after the tape stops. Not sure how to tell you to get your hands on one of these, as the band and label have no internet presence that I could find.

Corgi Waverider / The Demolitions Surfin’ My Garage!!! Vol. 1 split cassette

Split cassette between two bands from Tacoma, WA. The DEMOLITIONS are an instrumental surf rock band, with a name I recognized from a review I wrote a while back of RITCHIE MAGNUM & THE DEMOLITIONS. I’m not sure if they dropped RITCHIE or simply shortened the name, but their four tracks on this split are even better than the RITCHIE MAGNUM cassette. Very cool, timeless, reverb-drenched instrumental surf tunes. Their side includes a mix of covers, reworked surf tunes, and one full original. Whatever their sources, the DEMOLITIONS clearly know the sound they are chasing, and they nail it. Onto the B-side and CORGI WAVERIDER—I knew nothing about them going into this cassette. From the three songs on their side of the tape, there are definitely surf influences, but they lean more toward vocal garage rock. Mid-tempo, nasty, but still pretty catchy. A modern take on any number of Back From the Grave-style garage-rock bands. A fun background listen, but ultimately not the most memorable thing.

The Strange Chords The Strange Demo cassette

Oh, they’re introducing some “mood” very early on here. And then it develops into a super twangy western thing, like it could be a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western soundtrack, only on acid. Don’t let the cassette format kid you, this is some serious shit. The first couple of songs almost sound like they’ll be instrumentals, but then the vocals kick in. Great job setting a kind of eerie mood. Garage and mood and punk? Yeah, bring it.