Scott Soriano has deep knowledge & love for the obscure, so if he tells me The Geeks have been around for ____number of yrs, I'll play along. Why not? Who's it harm? That I never heard of'em till now is meaningless. Shit like that happens all the time. They got a unique 'n creepy sound that's so there, you can almost smell the stench of stale cigarette smoke 'n rotting pleather waft off this 7" as it spins it's sordid tales. The lounge vibe on here is as alive as a hair-nest full've syphilis spirochetes primed for action. Hell, I feel like I need to pack a switchblade just to walk in the room! The a-side, sung by a 15 yr old would-be chanteuse sorta resembles a poem cooed from the lips of Squeaky Fromme backed by a sloe gin fizzed 'Coral Rock' ensemble. The flip is indeed seething w/anger & intensity but it's foggy notions of revolution & revenge warmed the coddles of my heart in remembrance of Smiley Winters "That" Nigger Music' lp & hey, if the timelines had been wiggled just right, perhaps The Geeks coulda had a Touche matrix number. This kinda pugnacity just ain't around anymore so the fact that these tracks are from 79-80 make's sense (I guess). I sure would like to hear the rest. And while your at it, how about trackin down The Ragged Bags & Fiberglass Gorilla Limbs? Them's both got heavy archives that could use a barrel of ears too. But in a pinch, just more of The Geeks'd be swell, thanks.
http://www.s-srecords.com/
2 comments:
The Geeks started in 1965 as a teenage garage band. After a year, they got bored with 1, 2, 3, 4 and started doing garage versions of Miles Davis songs. They creeped into the late 60 doing a kind of psych/free jazz/jam thing and continued that until the mid 70s, when they started to concentrate their songs and sound a bit more art punk. They are from Marin County but later wound up in Frisco and were part of the scene around the Club Foot. They put out an LP called It's Not ABout Notes Anymore, and one 7" called Poland, fronted by their friend, poet Jim Goss. That came out in 1980. A friend and I tracked down the band and they were very down to earth guys with archives and archives of Geeks stuff. From the unreleased stuff, I released two songs - Dreamland in Machineland / Hey Wreck - sounds a lot like Flipper fronted by Archie Shepp. I just put out the one you reviewed and will do some more in the future. The band was pretty big but surprisingly stable. I dont think they had any illusions about stardom so it was music music music and nothing to get in the way. They broke up in 1983 but remained friends. Before I released Dreamland... several of them made the trip to Sacto to meet me. Putting out records by them is one of the most rewarding experiences that I have had with this racket.
Scott S
http://s-srecords.com
So you're critical of blacks who drop n-bombs, but sucka is still preferable over sucker??? Aight then!
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