7 & 7 Is

Only yesterday's newspaper are going out of print faster than most singles, and case in point is Drop-O's "Green Eggs and Sam the Man," a one-sided Austin artifact recorded at a Tower Record in-store for the Beat Generation Box Set, featuring a couple Waterloo Records guys wailing on sax and Dr. Seuss's children's classic like it was Northbeach in the Fifties. Classic indeed. Rise Records estimates the local market may have been flooded with as many as 60 copies! Find one. Matching "Green Eggs" for its eye-catching black on beige stenciled artwork is "Complicated Game" b/w "George Set Me Strait," by Chicago's answer to the Picketts, Moonshine Willy. That one's all B-side with the clever yet heartfelt paean to ol' George proving why this alt-country stuff feels so good. Like their Pecadores CD, it's on the Bloodshot Records label. Sympathy for the Record Industry is a pretty fair clearing house for 45s and they've got a dandy in Bigfoot Chester's "Harpoon Man" b/w "What Have I Done." This one's all Walter Daniels' three-alarm harp, which is on fire . We're talking 15-year-old naked, parents-gone-for-the-weekend, blues stomping lust. Plus, the Jimmy Rogers B-side isn't on the local group's new CD, The Devil In Me. The B-side isn't the reason to get Tallboy's new single on local indie Monkey Boy, which is easily demarcated by it's artwork. The innocent, Bob Keen-ish illo on the A-side, "Don't Wanna be Like You," earmarks the better tune, while the vomit-in-your-Philly-cheese-steak picture on the flip-side describes "Worm Farm" quite nicely. Still, this single begs for these Austin garage wreckers to put out a CD. As soon as possible. Same goes for Crown Heights, ex-locals whose Trance/Emperor Jones 45 hints at the Afghan Whigs sound waiting to be unleashed for American Records sometime soon. I look forward to it. -- Raoul Hernandez

"7 & 7 Is" reviews all local and national singles. Send to "7 & 7 Is," The Austin Chronicle, PO Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765