Garage-Punk Extraordinaire: The Thingz

Way back in our first post, we laid out our mission statement, and one of the places we said we wouldn’t go was the subgenre known as “garage-punk.” We also said that wasn’t etched into a stone tablet handed down by Moses.

Well, here we are a a minute or two later and that particular assertion has ended up not holding up very well – and we’re more than happy to reverse ourselves. Cool music has a way of changing things around here.

And bands like the Thingz made it very easy to flip-flop. The band may not even be the first garage-punk band we’ve featured, but they’re certainly one of the best at making it a part of today’s musical landscape.

The lines separating the different kinds of music we celebrate here, be it garage rock, or punk, or power pop or mod or freakbeat, are very thin ones indeed.  In fact, they’re probably thin enough that smart people don’t really get caught up in which genre is which anyway.

But since these labels do exist and people use them, we’ll deal with them. They don’t really tell you all that much about a band or artist, but at least they give you some reference point in understanding a band’s sound. If you want to see just how “garage-punk” the Thingz are, the best way to do that is to check them out yourself.

A crack three-piece outfit from Long Beach, California, the band offers up an eclectic and livewire style of music, one that most plainly channels the more muscular sound of ‘60s bands like the Monks or the Standells on one hand, while on the other it conjures up the best of succeeding generations, such as the Stooges.

Guitarist and singer Mike Morris outlines a long list of influences, some more subtle than others.

“We are a garage-punk band,” affirms Morris, who talked to Garagerocktopia both via e-mail and telephone. “We are influenced by garage bands from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and up to the present.  But we are not trying to recreate an old sound, look, aesthetic, etc.”

“We approach garage punk as stripped down rock and roll, going back to original Rock and Roll and R ‘n’ B influences like Little Richard, Link Wray, Chuck Berry; Stax Records, Excello Records, with nods to the Stones, the Sonics and the Stooges.”

Working with Morris to that end are his wife, Kim who handles bass and vocals, and Jason Cordero on drums and vocals.

From our standpoint here at Garagerocktopia, what garage-punk really amounts to is good old-fashioned garage-rock that doesn’t pretend that raw, energetic rock and roll didn’t come to a screeching halt in  December of 1969.

While ‘60s run for garage rock may have faded out, there were still plenty of kids with guitars and a fondness for the Beatles, the Stones, the Who et al who wanted to continue making rock that may have been short on bells and whistles but very long on spirit and fun.

And that brand of music, despite what you hear at the shopping malls and commercial radio, continues today, just in a few more directions. The Thingz strive to be part of that most unpretentious branch.

“The 70s punk explosion for reminded everyone where it all started,” Morris explained. “It was also later stuff like Teengenerate, the Drags, Mighty Caesars, etc. provided the impetus for us to start the band. Our music is on the raw side like punk, with the DIY aspect that goes along with it.”

One of the dividing lines between “garage-rock” and “garage- punk” is often a generational one – that garage-punk bands, while still respectful of ‘60s bands, are maybe just a tad less reverent.

Turns out, Morris points to a very good reason for that. Who, beyond Dr. Evil, would ever want to revive the sounds of Tiny Tim, or Bobby Goldsboro, or Englebert Humperdinck?

“Not all music from the 60s was that good. There was a lot of schlock,” said Morris.  “But there was good stuff, too, like the Sonics and the Standells. We also like the stuff you find on comps like Back From the Grave and Teenage Shutdown.”

The band started in the late ‘90s, when Mike and Kim – not yet Mr. And Mrs. Morris – decided the beautiful music they’d make together would just rock a little bit harder than most. 

“Way back in 1997, 1998, Kim said she wanted to start a garage band,” recalled Morris, who has been married to Kim for 15 years. “We wrote some songs, and then someone had to play them so we put the band together.”

The band’s sound contains many familiar-sounding riffs, albeit much louder and rawer. This was Red Future. especially true on their first album,

But the band’s sound is also progressing. The band’s second album, Troubles Begin, shows a giant leap in sophistication from the first and contains great songs like “Stumbling Blues.”  Despite their titles, songs like “Dead Time” and “Dead Mountain” are lively rockers.

A listen to newer material reveals that the Thingz’ evolution is ongoing. The band is currently working on their third album, Vault of Tomorrow. The lead song, “Black Dust,” can be heard on their Facebook page and shows the band’s seriousness and proficiency have climbed yet another notch.

“We’re just trying to push it forward with each recording,” Morris confirmed.  “We always want our

most recent record to be our best yet.”

One quality that helps the band to that end is that all three members sing, with Mike and Kim playing well off one another. Morris said the creative process is a truly collaborative one.

“I generally bring a rough outline of the song to practice, and we work on arrangements together,” said Morris. “That Kim and I sing together just seems to make it more interesting.  And I’m less likely to forget the words if there’s someone there to help me sing.”

Like so many of the bands featured on this blog, the Thingz have to work hard to get noticed. They have gotten airplay in France, have been played on the Leopard Print Lounge on Madison, Wisconsin’s WORT-FM, and on internet radio. But like a lot of bands, they have to rely on themselves to get noticed.

“The internet makes it possible for millions of people to hear your music,” said Morris, “at least theoretically. But the tough part is getting attention.”

Most of the band’s gigs are in Southern California, though they have enough of an audience to venture beyond.

“We occasionally play out of the area,” said Morris. “We play in Nevada and Arizona, and the San Francisco Bay Area.  We’ve even played Mexico City.  Touring can be problematic because we all have lots going on around here. But you just have to get out there, consistently get the music out there and just hope that someone notices.”

If you dig this story, please check out our features on Bad Beats and Oh! Gunquit. Rock on!