Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Damn Yankees - Sadly Not Bigger Than Life

Its not the best quality, but believe it or not its from a first gen demo tape I've had since the 80's. Maybe that's why they never got a record deal, because their demos sounded like shit and no one could hear how good the songs actually were. The original Damn Yankees featured Sten on vocals, who later left to form the Love Razors. This demo comes from the second lineup, with the bass player (Michael? Anyone?) moving over to lead vocals. Unfortunately there's next to no information on Damn Yankees on the web (except the Nuge's version), and time and medication has blurred my memory too much to remember the other member's names. I think Josh was the drummer. Maybe Jason Nesmith on guitar or bass. How about a little help out there? I know there were other people at those shows at Madame Wong's and the Troubadour, I saw you there. So here it is, without further useless information, the 4 song Damn Yankees demo tape.

Track Listing:
Bigger Than Life
Caroline
Die Laughing
Racing with the Moon

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/5cnywqk3FI8hbyoRucic4yKHIVV33hO9QPawsYKZ6R

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Premonition - Santa Clarita Knows How to Rock - 1980




Premonition were a local Santa Clarita Valley band of the late 70's/early 80's who self-released one single on their own label in 1980 featuring the songs "Glitter Girl" and "So What". Honestly, this thing is so obscure that the only reason I even have it is that the guitar player, Paul Hirschmann, was my guitar teacher from the ages of 10 to 12. I still remember the day he came over for my lesson and excitedly gave me two copies of this single, hot off the presses, and told me they pressed 100 of them. The A-side, their most famous song from their local gigs, was a classic-rock-cum-glam-rocker called "Glitter Girl" while the B-side was Hirschmann's moment to shine on the instrumental jazz-rock-psych riff-a-thon called "So What". This is the true sound of Los Angeles' north valley area circa 1980.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/XbuvFl3PyZYyzRWSQpexoCkQfG6qJagX5VwhlWAeAde