Consumer Guide Album

Dead Moon: Echoes of the Past [Sub Pop, 2006]
Oregonian Fred Cole has been in bands for forty-two years--cover, psychedelic, bubbglegum, show, country, a punk band called the Rats. He's also been with his wife Toody for thirty-nine. Fred, bassist Toody, and drummer Andrew Loomis formed the garage-rock Dead Moon in 1987. Postpunks who come to '60s garage grunge naturally because they were there, they sound like the 13th Floor Elevators without the clinical dementia. Caterwauling Fred is the chief singer, the defiance of convention his signature theme: "Pissed off, pissed off, pissed off/It's just the way I am." Toody provides changes of color--there's more variety in her dozen or so songs than in Fred's lion's share. Dead Moon make a good living touring Europe and have self-released six vinyl and seven forty-fives, which this double-CD cherry-picks. Though these 49 songs could be winnowed into an intense single CD, that would sacrifice their impressive sprawl factor. Not many guitar-bass-drums units generate so much remarkable material. Not many great stories come with such a good band attached. [Rolling Stone: 3.5]