The Morlocks "Play Chess" 2010 + "Time To Move" 2016 - 7"/45rpm

The Morlocks have been keeping the flame of garage band rock alive for some 26 years now. The band is based in L.A., where it has a small but rabid cult following...
...The band has no illusions of fame and fortune and hews steadfastly to the lo-fi, murky production quality of the mono recordings of the late '50s and early '60s. As you probably guessed from the album title and the cover art, which mimics the distressed cover of a beloved LP that's been taken down from the shelf so many times that you can see the record showing through the cardboard cover, this is a collection of tunes made famous by the artists who called Chess Records home, and a few that didn't. John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" first came out on Vee-Jay, and helped lay the foundation for rock. The Morlocks perform it as a big, rumbling rave-up that owes little to Hooker or the Animals, the band most youngsters copy when the play the song. Chuck Berry's "Promised Land" dumps all the Berry-isms from the guitar work and sounds like the Ramones backing the Beach Boys, with singer Leighton Koizumi snarling like the young Iggy Pop. Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." gets deconstructed into a grungy groove that almost dispenses with the melody in favor of a big, thundering wall of rhythmic sludge. They introduce Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me" with the opening riff from the Who's "My Generation" before dropping into a measured, back-alley grind. Little Milton's "Feel So Bad," later a hit for Elvis Presley, gets a forceful performance marked by Koizumi's almost unintelligible vocal and Bobby Bones' unruly guitar. - Review by j. poet
trax:
01 I'm A Man 02 Help Me 03 Killing Floor 04 Smokestack Lightning 05 Who do You love 06 Boom Boom 07 Promised Land 08 Sitting on top of the world 09 You never can tell 10 Feel so bad 11 You can't sit down 12 Back In The USA

"Time To Move" 2016 - 7"/45rpm
...In 1999 Spin Magazine printed an article that claimed that lead singer Leighton Koizumi had died, however this turned out to be untrue, and in fact, by this time Koizumi had reformed the Morlocks and was touring Los Angeles. The newly-formed Morlocks include Koizumi on vocals, Bobby Bones on guitar & backup vocals, Lenny Pops on guitar, Nick "The Canadian" on bass, and Marky on drums. In addition to reuniting, the band was also touring newly-written songs, with Koizumi commenting in 2006 on a possible live album to be released at some time in the future. - discogs

trax:
01 Time To Move 02 Hang Up