The Mechanics: Random MP3's
No Brakes: 07/15/1979
Our single. Have never been crazy about this, much better live. Nifty feedback at the end courtesy of your's truly, and Scott's excellent on it. Sandy too. A copy recently sold for a whopping $348.00 on Ebay, and I don't have the heart to tell the buyer there's another 500 copies in a garage up north somewhere :-)
 Download Here.
Carburetion Generation: 07/15/1979This is an outtake from when we recorded our lone single with Brian Webster at Chateau East Studios. This is miles better than both sides of the single, but we made the decision based on the newness of the songs, rather than their quality. Best thing we ever recorded, this kicks ass.
Download Here.
Love Will Keep Us Together: 07/15/1979Told you we were big on joke titles. When Brian was mixing these down for me, there was a track where Tim wanted to hear how he'd sound singing this, so I asked Brian to mix it with Tim singing the first verse, and Scott singing the second. Pretty cool, and a compact Rick Neilsen solo from your's truly.
Download Here.
Scream City: 07/15/1979This is an out take from when we recorded our single with (sadly) no vocal track. If you would like to get an idea of how tight we could be, this would be a good example. The ending is excellent, if I do say so myself, and I forgot how freakin' tight Mike Couden is on bass...
Download Here.
Chalet Time 2:02: 11/77 and ?/79Big difference in tightness between these versions from two years apart. The 77' version is from a very early practice and the 79' version (sadly no vocals) is off one of the demos Tim's recently turned up. If you listen close, you'll notice the F#-G-F# bridge is from On Fire by Van Halen who I used to see in the clubs all the time. Never thought they'd make it, so why not borrow their bridge? :-)
77' Download Here : 79' Download Here.
Smoke My Jock: 11/77Good version from our 1st studio recording. Doesn't start until 40 seconds, sorry about the filler :-)
Download Here.
Enema Punishment: Party in Chino, 01/06/1981We hadn't played this song since our 77-78 punk days, but it sounds pretty good here, considering the bad sound quality.
Download Here.
Dead Mans Curve: Early 1978This is the first thing we ever recorded on a proper tape machine. The most bubblegum thing we'd ever attempted (not like us in the least), but it's not half bad. Brett's backing vocals are excellent. Rodney Bingemheimer used to play this on KROQ quite a bit, and Jan & Dean said complementary things when they were on his show.
Download Here.
Pre-Mechanics: Random MP3's
L.A. Brats
Here you go, you lucky fuckers. Sandy, Brett and my first band was The L.A. Brats (Scott was already in a local band called Wink.) The stuff below sounds like everyones first band, mistakes and all. I'm happy to have unearthed it :-)
New Girl In School: 03/1977Our 1st studio recording. I love this. Unbeknownst to us, Scott didn't have any lyrics, so he made them up on the spot (the alt. take is totally different.) Done in someone's garage in La Habra. The riff I stole from George Lynch of The Boyz (later of Dokken) and was originally called 'Night Train' (I also stole the title for another song, I kind of wished I was George :-) The solo is me trying to be Mick Ronson, and (at least in spirit) I've never topped it in my life. Glorious noise.
Download Here.
Hang On To Yourself: Earlier 1977Our 1st practice recording. Recorded in Brett Alexanders garage. This is the original Brats lineup with John Crawford on guitar before he hit with Berlin and the greatly underrated The Big F. John does the nifty wah-wah solo.
Download Here.
|
 |
Post-Mechanics: Random MP3's
Sandy, Scott, Mike & Dennis - The Shadows
Sandy, Scott, Eric and me continued on as La Mort for three years after The Mechanics broke up, and there's not much recorded that I like from that period. We reunited with Michael Dane (Couden) for all of a month in 1985, recorded a demo and played our last show at Joshua's. I'm proud of this stuff, even though no ones heard it. To quote Steve Jones, take it away sunshine...
First Things First: 03/11/1985The guitar is a little smooshy for my liking (probably my fault, only time I ever used a British Hi-Watt), but this is pretty nifty. Scott's great on it, and we don't sound bad for not playing together in so long. Nice solo, if I do say so myself, and I have Brian to thank since there wasn't gonna be one until he'd suggested it.
Download Here.
Shadows: 03/11/1985Minor key tune, lack of a click-track means it speeds up, but it still came out nice. Brian Webster lends some unknown piano skills to the mix. Try finding another rock song with a Maj7 chord in it and I'll buy you a Starbucks :-)
Download Here.
Devotion: 03/11/1985Love Scott's singing on this. A great 'Live at Leeds' Roger Daltrey scream after the solo.
Download Here.
Guzuta: Joshua's, 03/03/1985I've noted before that Sandy plays the best drum solo's on the planet, and you can see here. Make sure things around you are nailed down. Sandy!
Download Here.
First Things First: Joshua's, 03/03/1985Hello Joshua's! Set opener. Unlike the recorded version from a week later, no solo.
Download Here.
Black Mind: Joshua's, 03/03/1985Always liked Scott's vocal line. Yet another theft of mine, this time from Solar Angels by Judas Priest :-)
Download Here.
MRTG (Money Rules The Game): Joshua's, 03/03/1985Yet another, 'Dennis trying to be A La Carte' riff :-) Good groove...
Download Here.
Loves an Oasis: Joshua's, 03/03/1985I'm in the minority in thinking this is the best song Scott and me wrote. Would have killed to have heard it slowed down and done in a proper studio. The vocal line is awesome.
Download Here.
Devotion: Joshua's, 03/03/1985Set closer. Last song we ever played together.
Download Here.
Sandy, Scott, Eric & Dennis - La Mort
Fist and Chain: 1982This is the song we did on a Metal Massacre comp, but this is a rehearsal version that's a little faster. Cool Scott vocal climb at the end.
Download Here.
Gotta Move: 1982The most simple riff I ever wrote (trying to do a groove thing, ala A La Carte), but this is my favorite Scott vocal ever. Brian Webster told him to go for it, and he nailed it.
Download Here.
Sandy's Revenge!: No IdeaI fell into the same trap as everyone else then in trying to write a blatant radio song. This one (title forgotten) sounds like freakin' Hot Blooded :-) Brian Webster unearthed this - It's a drunken Sandy improvising lyrics after everyone had gone home, and it's just awesome. Brian yelling, "Sandy!" and the laughing on the fadeout is priceless...
Download Here.
Tim Racca - Shört Dog
Tim's been in a few bands since The Mechanics (namely Da Losers and 16 Tons), and is currently working on a project called Shört Dog. Everything you hear here is Tim, from the guitar, bass, vocals and drums, to the engineering and mixing.
Nowness As Dogma: 2008My favorite of the bunch so far. Zeppelin meets Iggy meets the Sea Hags. Great groove!
Download Here.
Streisand Next (In the Rock & Roll Hall of Tame): 2008Tim lamenting Motörhead's omission from The Rock and Roll of Fame. "Streisand Next, Streisand Next!!!"
Download Here.
Édith Piaf's 'Soul of Paris': 2008Tim's resurrected a 30's anthem by cabaret singer and French icon Édith Piaf with some fun results. His singing voice of late leans more towards the guy in Entombed, but I think I hear some Axl Rose in this one...
Download Here.
The End of Arrogance (On Pennsylvania Avenue): 2008Another nifty groove from Tim's new Shört Dog project.
Download Here.
|
Tim Racca and Greg Westermark (AKA Greg Scars) played together in Head Over Heels before Greg left for San Francisco to form The Avengers in 1978. While Scott was finishing up a vocal line for Tim's song Warm Hollywood Welcome, The Avengers released it with the title Car Crash on the legendary punk label Dangerhouse. Same verse and bridge, different chords in the chorus. We of course dropped it from our set since people now thought The Avengers had written it. I still love their version, and Greg does some nifty playing on it. It now fetches up to $250 on EBay, so here is my $250 gift to you!
The Adolescents reunited without their great singer Tony, and with our great drummer Sandy for a while in the 80's. About two minutes into their song here from the Balboa Fun Zone CD, it ends with a note-for-note copy of the ending of Mechanics Guide To Nice Girls. This was a song we did around 1979 that always prompted a lot of air guitar gyrations from the crowd :-)
Poop are the mighty Rikk Agnew, Perry Giordano on bass, and Mechanics singer Scott Hoogland on vocals. Rikk was always a fan of ours, and was on the short list of bass players we auditioned when we were starting out. Poop do a lot of Mechanics tunes in their set and they do a great version of this one. The Mechanics version is an out take from when we recorded our single, and it smokes the single - we chose a newer song (No Brakes) which in hindsight is total drag... Scott's Poop reference on their version ("When the shit hits... That's FAN-TASTIC!") is a crack up...
