Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Get Lost - Never Come Back

After experiencing the wonderful hospitality of the Swiss, as well as the incredible talent of the members of the Project Blue music/art co-op (my description - not sure how they described themselves) while on Europeans tours with the Miracle Workers, both Rob Butler (bass) and Gerry Mohr (singer) decided to move there after the Workers broke up. LA scenester Chris Rosales was also enticed to head that way and the expatriates joined together to form a new garage group, the Get Lost, along with native Kat Aellen (on bass, with Rob moving to guitar along with Gerry, though Rob moved back to bass later). The results are in these grooves and are damn near phenomenal - though you would expect nothing less from them!

Sharp, biting chords burst out right from the start on "One Way Street" and this easily sounds like an outtake from the Workers' Inside Out - cool riffs, Gerry's nasal-y vocals and sing-along choruses. Ah yeah, you know you're in for something cool! This feel continues with "Boogie Hut", with lots more fuzz and a hip, almost off-rhythmic beat. "Love is a Garden" is a bit of a ballad (comparatively) with nice backing vocals and clean guitar riffing for most of the tune - except for another overdriven solo!

"One Way Ticket" starts with tons of feedback and is simply buried in fuzz, snarling vocals and primitive drums! Crazed garage at its best! Still, rockin', but with a highly melodic lick is "Second Hand" that adds an interesting interlude in the middle as Gerry haggles with a French-speaking Swiss salesperson! The group throws in a couple of covers here: the fantastic "Leavin' Here", as well as the Gravedigger V's "Spooky", which is a super song, but does sound a little odd coming from anyone other than Leighton.

Their theme song is a dance craze titled "Do the Get Lost", a frantic number with an insistent groove and swinging guitar work. I don't know if "You're the One" is a cover or if it just sounds like it came off of one of the Pebbles albums, but either way, it's pretty freakin' excellent, with a chorus you can't help singing and another pulsating beat (Chris turned into a superb drum-master after splitting the Foot Foot Three in LA!). "MDMation" seems to be a drug-fueled hit with a ridiculously catchy guitar line weaving within the vocals and even more psychedelic is the closer, "Elevator", eliciting memories of the 13th Floor Elevators, unsurprisingly.

All around amazing LP! Don't know if it was ever released on CD, but regardless, any lover of great garage rock should own this! And don't miss Rob's new adventure, the Shit!