Coursing Through The Wires #4

Woke up the other morning from a dream where the only things I could remember were a guitar riff and the name "Drive Like Jehu."  After waking up, I realized the riff was actually not Jehu (more on that in a minute) but I scurried to the 7" boxes to figure out which Jehu song was supposed to be playing.

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Drive Like Jehu -- Hand Over Fist b/w Bullet Train To Vegas (Merge, 1992)

Clearly, I was thinking of "Hand Over Fist" -- it seems that this single is so long out of print that Merge Records has disowned its very existence.  John Reis' Swami Records was kind enough to include it in the 2002 re-issue of "Yank Crime," however, so the song is not completely lost to time.  Pitchspork calls the song "Nirvanic" in the shouted chorus ("give 'em an inch/they'll take a mile") -- I'd call Pitchspork's naive assessment "damning with faint praise."  Aside from the "piped through a distant megaphone" introduction, this song is more straight-forward rawk than most of the math-damaged Jehu catalogue -- two minutes and forty seconds of pure adrenaline leaping off the turntable. "Hand Over Fist" (MP3 archive) bridges the gap between the mutant Honor Role offspring (Breadwinner and Coral) and Superchunk in the early Merge line-up.

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Girls against Boys -- Bulletproof Cupid b/w Sharkmeat (Touch & Go, 1993)

Bulletproof Cupid is definitely the song from my dream -- suggesting that I was recalling a long-ago radio show (perhaps WPRB's pez-boy Tim?).  This song consists primarily of one powerful, propulsive riff from hell -- excellent music to psych oneself up for just about anything.  Released as a 7" before inclusion on GvsB's first CD for Touch and Go, "Venus Luxure #1 Baby," the band channels ZZ Top, Judas Priest, and AC/DC to announce the progression from DC art-damaged scenesters to ROCK F***ING GODS (an unfortunately short-lived stage in the band's existence). 

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GOD - My Pal b/w Chockablock Rock & Roll (Lance Rock, 1989)

Speaking of gods, my record-flipping fingers fell upon this Canadian re-issue of two songs originally released on Melbourne, Australia's venerable Au-Go-Go Records. GOD exemplifies the virtues of stupidity in music -- from the band's name to the absurd photograph (post-orgy?) to the brilliant insight of a lyric like "you're my only friend/and you don't even like me."  Sometimes, the stupidity is just plain dumb, like the utterly forgettable b-side of this single or GOD's 7" released on SFRTI -- but  "My Pal" transcends its roots (similar to the Gravel Pit [realaudio]). Amazingly, the members of GOD were all 16-17 when they wrote and recorded this song... Wikipedia says two members have passed, but Matty Meatcleaver has published only a heartfelt tribute to Sean and mentions nothing of Tim's demise.