Free Music Download: Disco Sucks

This one is much less "legal" then the last free music download. This is actually a reissue of a collection of the singles. The original collection of singles were released 13 years after the band's demise (in 1967). This reissue is from 2004 (37 years after the band broke up). So you certainly aren't going to be supporting the artists here by buying the cd, only some label's efforts to provide this material in the new digital age (which is a noble effort... but still).



Anyway with that disclaimer out of the way, this is Disco Sucks a collection of singles released by short-live garage rock proto-punk outfit The Swamp Rats. Now if you're an album purist who doesn't normally listen to singles/collections as I am you need to understand how rock releases worked in the 60s. Very few bands could put together enough good material for an album (which was part of the reason The Beatles and other British invasion bands were so spectacular), they generally just released singles and covers of rock standards.

Thus this album features only 2 original tracks (which are fantastic, see the video) and 11 amazing covers including two Rolling Stones songs and one by the Beatles. But a major highlight is the opening track, Richard Berry's "Louie Louie". The song was a garage rock standard and many many bands have covers of it. But this is the heaviest most punk rock cover I have ever heard (and recorded in 1966!). The guitar is so fuzzy and loud that at first listen you might think the guitarist isn't even switching chords as he pounds out each note of that famous rhythm. This album is some of the heaviest garage rock I have found, approaching sludgy noisy proportions, and I highly recommend it to fans of the Sonics or the Stooges.

(I should also note that the rerelease here appends the album with 3 untitled never released experimental tracks recorded by the band before their break up [this stuff is really haunting and weird but very cool in it's own way, it just doesn't go well with the album])

This one is hosted by a http://garage60s.blogspot.com/, this page will provide the download link near the bottom as well as some additional information about the band:

http://garage60s.blogspot.com/2008/05/swamp-rats-1966.html

I should warn you that the file is a .rar, which if you don't know how you'll need to look up how to open online (it will be easier if you have a PC but I believe there is a way on a Mac to do so).

And here's a video to give you a taste if you're still undecided about how incredibly awesome this stuff is (this song is one of the originals, "Hey Freak", a heavy rocking song with such heavy repeating bass and yelled vox that at first it sounds like Flipper's Sex Bomb):