ON THE RECORD

Get Action 7" release

Supergroup. The term is derived from the 1968 LP Super Session (Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield, and Stephen Stills) and is used to describe a group of musicians who first hit it big elsewhere. Okay so maybe it doesn’t accurately describe Get Action. I mean, really, how many ‘burque bands have ever hit it big besides The Shins? The Eyeliners on the Warped circuit for a few years in the early aughts and The Strawberry Zots for about three minutes (the length of their 1989 FM radio hit And You Drive Your Pretty Car ).

Chances are most of you haven’t seen the bands from which Get Action was formed so it may not seem so super to you after all. But that doesn’t mean these groups weren’t important in the local scene. That said,  just suppose there was an accident, a fatal mishap during a Get Action show that electrocuted the band or something? A catalyst like frontman Wild Bill Bunting clambering up the outdoor electrical boxes during a Blackbird Buvette show a couple of years ago comes to mind. Such a calamity could wipe out a huge chunk of local Punk and Rock N’ Roll history! The moral is, better go see these old guys while you can. How old? Well, let’s just say I’ve known one of them since he underage and sneaking into Launchpad shows back in 1996. We’ll get back to him later.

Get Action s/t 7” vinyl (Get Action Records, 2014)

This Friday is a perfect opportunity since it’s the debut of Get Action’s two-song 7”, a rockin’ little slab of blue vinyl complete with obligatory download code for all you youngsters and a free sticker for all you old punk rockers. The record is a tad less unruly than their live act which is not an unusual thing to say for many a  release. The excitement of playing before a crowd is lost in the studio (especially sans Bunting climbing the walls) but to be fair, live recordings don’t always make the musical mark every time either, technically speaking. Mastered by Frankie (The Angel Babies) Medina at Tone Deaf Audio in Santa Fe, this record is a fine sonic compromise. The catchy Tryin’ ( “to write this song /but all I have to say /is whoa oh oh oh”) is backed with the harder edged, almost sinister Bed Of Nails.

Bunting has been screaming his way around noisy outfits like 10 Seconds to Lift Off and Dynamite Kegs for over a decade. Using this band as an excuse, he returned to Albuquerque in 2012 after a self-imposed exile in Las Cruces ( which has always had a decent if underexposed punk scene). Conveniently, ex-Lift Off guitarist Scott Brown had moved here a few years previous. Despite being familiar with Bunting’s shenanigans, he was conned into jumping aboard with his snarly and snakey Stratocaster leads. 

Get Action co-founder Ashley Floyd was channeling everyone from Dead Milkmen to The Lords of the New Church when he formed the Gracchi in 2004 with (among others) ex-Scared of Chaka drummer Jeffrey Jones (a founding ex-member of Get Action by the way). Floyd even proposed to a Gracchi bandmate/now-bride onstage, a class act. In Get Action, he’s not nearly so classy but plays a mean rhythm guitar with a few hot leads for good measure.

Bassman Zac Webb is best known from the whammy glammy Foxx, sort of  The Sweet covering ABBA. He’s also been in the barely heard post-punk of The Phase and the neo-psych of Jealous Gods. Get Action is the closest Webb has gotten to thrashy punk since his juvenile delinquent band Fuck Taco Bell in the mid-90s -- not that he would care for me to mention it but what are old pals for. Remember that Launchpad story above? Right.

Joey Gonzales has thumped for every type of band you can shake  a drum stick at. The list could go on for days. He’s the current stickman for Red Light Cameras and The  Porter Draw but it’s his work in the garage-psych Dirty Novels, poppunk Pan!c and the catchy heartache of Lousy Robot that is echoed here.  

ERIC WILLIAMS ERICWPHOTO.COM 

So how does this conglomeration add up? To some damn fine Raucous N’ Roll that will raise your blood pressure reading by a good many points and I mean that in the best possible way. Rumor has it that Burt’s Tiki Lounge renovated the stage ( moving it back to its previous Dingo Bar location) for the express purpose of preventing Bunting from swinging from the lighting rig ever again. Rocking out to Descendants or Gas Huffer, he’s been risking life and limb on skateboards for years so I’m not so sure this will stop him.

Opening act, Shitty and The Terribles are similar in the raucous department but closer in tone to Boss Hog or Yeah Yeah Yeahs. No, the latter aren’t overrated. In fact their overratedness is itself overrated, if you get my drift. Lead guitarist Terrible Tripp is only involved in tasteful bands, like uhhh, Terri Schiavo Dance Party and Bob Seger’s Electric Penis. His wailing leads reach a bit past garage territory towards bands that haven’t yet been reverently resurrected by hipsters but were of the sort championed by the old Creem magazine, like Alice Cooper or Rush. With her best Johnny Ramone chops, Soni Reducer (The Phase, Deadtown Lovers, The Shamones) backs up Tripp while solid drummer Rudi Thornburgh demonstrates his versatility because his real love is in the technobeats of his other outfits Superpublic and Clocklife. But after years of DJing it’s vocalist Bea Shitty who takes the spotlight in her first band, vogueing and doing the Hully Gully all over the place.

Oh and then there’s Austin’s OBN IIIs, chock full of anthemic 1980s muscle rock. Their band persona is a little bit “bro” if you know what I mean. I can’t quite see the tongue in cheek if there is any but put-on or not, there are some out and out rockers in their repertoire. As well, listen for echoes of RadioBirdman. This brings us back full circle as those seminal Aussie rockers are cited by Get Action as a founding influence. Nothing wrong with starting up down under.

https://www.facebook.com/GetActionNM

OBN IIIs , Get Action! , Shitty & The Terribles

Friday November 14, 2014

Burt’s Tiki Lounge

313 Gold Ave SW

9pm doors

$5

originally presented in weekly alibi in slightly different format