Pretty simple packaging, a couple photos, very basic credits, and the
tracklisting...it's just one fold out panel, not a booklet and no
lyrics.
I saw these guys live in Chicago and thoroughly enjoyed them...almost
"Demons" like...excellent, solid rock and roll. There was no question
I'd pick up a CD...they put on a good show and seemed like reasonable
enough guys.
So I throw it on with high expectations...mind you, my first encounter
was a loud, powerful rock force. If someone put this on I'd guess it
was "The Mummies." Low fi is an understatement...basically, imagine
putting a Radio Shack tape recorder in the middle of a room, hitting
record, and telling a band to rock out...also, turn the singer's mic all the
way up so it constantly clips and distorts....then take that tape and
high speed dub it, take the copy and high speed dub that one, repeat
this ten times on cheap tapes, age it for three years and you have the new
Coffin Lids record.
I don't really get the whole garage rock, let's record this thing so it
sounds like crap mentality...I think it does a disservice to some great
music.
Except here's the thing...
The songs are too damn good for you to not like it and the production
is so damn bad that it's almost pointless talking about it...they wanted
a crappy sounding record and they put one out. It's still a great
record. If Metallica wants to record another "raw" album they should use
the guy that recorded this instead of a pricey studio and record
everything through pro-tools to give it a fake "raw" sound...this is raw and
real.
So, I was very shocked with the quality of the recording...and it took
a few listens for me to accept it...but goddamn if this isn't a great
record. How do you know a band writes good, catchy songs? How about
when you see a band once, put on their record for the first time two days
later and are able to sing along to half the record? It's just pure
rock and roll, it's gritty, ugly, and just in your goddamn face.
Songs seem to be about standard garage type topics...zombies, vampires,
cars, girls, beer, and rock & roll.
So it's mostly fast songs, solid rock, very simple songs, very raw
production, and it's a lot of fun. If you like The Mummies, I'd put money
down that you'll enjoy this...if your problem with that band is their
shitty production, then skip this one. But, let's say you can stand bad
quality recordings...all those Stooges "outtakes" don't bother you one
bit...you think "Head On" isn't bad...all that MC5 live shit sounds
good to you...old Misfits live tapes frequent your stereo? You'll enjoy
this.
