The Thingz They Are A-Changin'

Garage Punk, by its very nature, is a 100% straightforward kind of music – something that, despite its simplicity, poses a serious challenge. Three chords and twelve bars are great and easy to play, and can also be a ton of fun to listen to. But when that style is your bread and butter, how do you keep your songs from sounding all the same? Far too many bands have yet to answer to that particular problem, and a fair number don’t even bother.

The Thingz have, though. The band has succeeded well in making each album sound just different enough from the last. This month, the Long Beach, California-based trio roars back – and hums and buzzes back, too -- with its latest offering, SupersonicSaucer. This album’s not just a tad different – it’s a big wave goodbye to much of what the Thingz sound was in the past.

There are a few songs, such as album opener “Some Came to Dance,” that no doubt will please anyone into the band’s up-to-now trademark thrash. So, too, will “Death Ray” and “New Machine."

Beyond those tunes, though, the sound gets mighty different, sometimes settling down firmly in American tradition, other times nodding heavily to a format that emerged a few decades ago called “rock of the ’80s.”

“I think about half the songs have a rootsy, traditional-sounding vibe,” confirms guitarist Mike Morris, talking to Garagerocktopia by email. “There’s definitely a country and blues influence in places.  Some of the other songs have more of a new wave -- for lack of a better term -- style to them.”  

The band has long displayed its affinity for blues, and there’s no shortage of tuneage – mostly the album’s earlier cuts -- harkening to Bo Diddley and Howlin’ Wolf.

The mid-tempo “Sick and Wild” directly summons up the latter’s “Smokestack Lightning,” while the more assertive-rocker “Falling Town” channels the former. “Holy Jim” sprinkles in a Hank Williams I vibe to classic blues.

Morris, who plays and sings alongside wife Kim on bass and Jason Cordero on drums, credited new ways of recording the band – an endeavor helmed by Johnny Cerneka at Pot O' Gold Studios -- for making Supersonic Saucer a gigantic left turn musically for the band.

“Our last couple records were recorded very simply,” Morris reported.  “It was basically done live in the studio with one guitar track and no overdubs.  On this album, we spent more time tracking and recording; more guitars; different instruments, including a synthesizer, and various percussion and shakers.  I think our music now has a fuller sound. Not necessarily better per se, but certainly different.”

From the screaming turquoise background and kitschy Sci-Fi UFO illustrations found on Bob Kurthy’s album cover, to the aforementioned synthesizers, the new album is a throwback to the music that busted out on radio during the early years of the Reagan Administration.

“Lost My Mind,” with its synthesizer tomes and one of the best hooks on the album, checks in as one of the album’s strongest cuts. “Mammal Me” is even more synth-driven but with some snarly guitars, too, recalling Devo pre-New Traditionalists.

“I feel the stuff on side B, particularly the songs mentioned above are more the direction the band will be taking,” Morris said.

The album closes in grand garage-rock style with a fine, pulsating cover of the Count Five’s classic “Psychotic Reaction,” making it something new more than just recreating it.

The Thingz continue to build an audience and a solid reputation. Recently, that paragon of hip, LA Weekly wrote a profile of the band – a sure sign of arrival here in Southern California. By making an album that ventures so far into new musical territory, the band has taken no small risk. But, in this day and age when rock rarely shows the backbone to buck formula, it’s great to see a band willing to stick its neck out and steer clear of stagnating into a stale self-parody.

We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees etched in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

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