Today's Hotness: The Get Quick, Superman Revenge Squad

>> El Ted unearthed the video clip above from Philadelphia glam-rockers The Get Quick, which has heretofore eluded our attention for some six months. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the clip (given the likely early hour of the performance) is it evidences band fronter Erik Evol playing the same guitar that he has been playing for at least fifteen years; while it is hard to tell from the clip, the ax used to be cherry red. Anyway, the clip finds the quartet -- including former Kam Fong drummer Colonel Mike Boran on rhythm guitar -- running through "When I First Saw You" last August on the Philadelphia NBC affiliate's "10!" morning show, of all places. The Get Quick issued its sophomore set See You In The Crossfire last May, as we noted here. While checking out "When I First Saw You" we noticed there is another clip we hadn't seen: here is the band performing The Beatles' "She Said, She Said" at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia last year. All of this Get Quick rock and roll has us listening through the cuts in our personal larder of GQ material, so here's a juicy outtake from the sessions that produced the band's very nice 2005 debut How The Story Goes.

The Get Quick -- "Out Of Time" -- How The Story Goes (Outtake)
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[buy Get Quick records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> As we noted here previously, today God Is In The TV 'zine issues Superman Revenge Squad's "Idiot Food" as a free digital single. The track is backed with "The Angriest Dog In The World" and "When Everyone's Dead" and you can snatch all three songs right here. In the event you didn't heed our assessments previously, Superman Revenge Squad principal Ben Parker's prior acts Tempertwig and Nosferatu D2 were also very good and there is a lot of material from those bands freely available around the Internetses that is more than worth the time to track down.

>> Manchester, England indie rockers The Answering Machine report they are demoing material with an eye toward a summer full-length debut. Production on the planned record will begin in April or May, which suggests to us that a fall offering is much more likely. In the meantime notable Internet radio operation WOXY has apparently played fairy godmother to the quartet and is supporting in some fashion -- we'd guess financially -- the band's appearance next month at the annual South By Southwest music industry confab in Austin, Texas. Readers may recall a similar bit of help from Urban Outfitters getting Scottish indie trio Frightened Rabbit to the conference last year. Expect a WOXY session from The Answering Machine to be recorded during its week-long sojourn to SxSW.

Today's Hotness: Piebald, Frightened Rabbit, The Get Quick

>> Two stories of note over at Pun Canoes recently. First, here is news that defunct Boston emo concern Piebald will reform for a single gig April 18 at The Middle East Rock Club in Cambridge, Mass. Piebald most recently called it quits in mid-2007 after releasing its seventh long-player Accidental Gentlemen. In August we took time out here to praise the band's excellent track "'Grace Kelly With Wings," the opening track on the band's 1999 sophomore set. In unrelated news, a 1999 documentary about the New York City hardcore punk scene, appropriately titled N.Y.H.C., is being reissued in a special two-DVD set March 25. The set focuses on acts including Murphy's Law, Cro-Mags, 108, Madball and Vision Of Disorder and includes bonus live footage of featured bands performing complete songs, as well as other bonus footage and deleted scenes. The second disc includes new interviews. You can read more information here and here.

>> So it turns out that, at least according to this post at Hearsay (which points to this post at Scottish music blog The Pop Cop), the forthcoming sophomore set from Glaswegian indie rock trio Frightened Rabbit is titled Midnight Organ Fighting. As we reported here before our year-end break, look for the set to be released in the U.S. in early March prior to the South By Southwest music confab.

>> Action is afoot in the The Get Quick camp. Go to the band's MySpace dojo and stream the scorcher "Change Of Scene," which may be (and certainly sounds like) a holdover from the quartet's former iteration as Philadelphia's MantaRay in the '90s. "Change Of Scene" is pilled up and scritchy attitude and a total thrill ride. While you are over there check out the track "The City Of Perpetual Mist" as well. You'll be glad you gave the band a couple minutes of your time. The band's 2007 set See You In The Crossfire was released to utter silence from the blogosphere (except for our coverage, of course). This is too bad, because there are a number of high points, although the record wasn't as consistent as The Get Quick's 2005 debut How The Story Goes. Here's one track from each record.

The Get Quick -- "The Blinds" -- See You In The Crossfire
The Get Quick -- "Blaue Reiter" -- How The Story Goes
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[buy Get Quick records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> We are about midway through the eminently readable Motley Crue bio "The Dirt," which made this item at Buddyhead jump out at us. Apparently "The Dirt" is being dramatized for a film expected to be released in 2009. The most interesting thing about that is Christopher Walken is rumored to be committed to portray Ozzy Osbourne. Val Kilmer, who hasn't made a compelling movie since 1985's "Real Genius," may portray delightful Van Halen fronter David Lee Roth, which somehow doesn't seem too far off the mark to us. More info here and here.

First Listen: The Get Quick's See You In The Crossfire [MP3]

In its typically understated manner (well, unstated -- the band doesn't mention it on its sole offical web presence, this MySpace dojo), the sophomore set from Philadelphia's power-glammers/paw glimmers The Get Quick was issued May 29. See You In The Crossfire potently showcases the psychotropic rock ("Chemical Reaction"), winking wit ("X-Fire") and disheveled romance ("Angels With Powdered Noses") that characterizes band leader Erik Evol's songwriting. More modest production (or at least less aurally dense versus the more lush material from 2005's solid and more synth-informed How The Story Goes) imbues the set with a palpable energy more representative of the band's live assault. EMusic has the album for sale right here, and the hard-copy is available via all the usual digital storefronts, too.

Opening with a sound collage of cooing women and 'splosions and launching into the scorcher "Renting A Room," from there, our first impression is the set lives up to Evol's promise here of "a no-holds-barred buzzsaw rush of songs designed to melt your face off from the get-go." Face-melting numbers include "Renting A Room," the pounding marcher "My Enemy" and the aforementioned and revamped version of the older Evol composition "Chemical Reaction." The latter song's bridge section and lacerating guitar solo is the closest thing we've heard on a Get Quick recording to the draw-jopping late '90s live performances of the band's pre-cursor, MantaRay (sadly, we haven't seen Evol and his henchmen perform since the night before we moved to Boston in 1999). And yet, See You In The Crossfire has more than one gear. "Fashion Street," which is oddly similar to Love As Laughter's excellent "Canal Street," is an affecting and straightforward pop-rocker, with a wild tremolo/vocoder type effect at the close. And oft-played cover of The Beatles' "She Said, She Said" and album highlight "The Blinds" both plod a step slower than you'd expect, letting Evol land every lyric like a blow and allowing drummer Mitchell Joy to deliberately bring the songs home like one of those guys with flashlights on an airport tarmac. There is but one Get Quick show booked right now; if you are in the band's hometown of Philadelphia July 5, head over to the Khyber. Here's an MP3 of one of the tunes Rainbow Quartz is sort of offering at its page for The Get Quick (the link is there, but it doesn't point to an MP3 file just yet).

The Get Quick -- "Same Mistake" -- See You In The Crossfire
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[buy See You In The Crossfire from Rainbow Quartz here]