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