Dead Moon "Dead Moon Night" 1988-1989(rec) 1990(comp)*****

I saw Dead Moon perform a bunch of times in Greece, most often at the AN Club in my old neighbourhood. Each time was exhilarating, but the first one was an epiphany "so that's what the real thing looks like!". All passion, no fake rock star poses and no flourishes. Their shows were very intimate and intense, guitar feedback all over the place, Fred's shrilly voice often cracked with emotion. His wife Toody helped with the vocals while also playing the world's most badass bass (according to none other than Lemmy). Drummer Andrew Loomis used to fasten a Jack Daniels bottle with a lit candle in it on his drum kit, and then proceeded to beat the shit out of it. Their music was a mix of 60's garage punk, folk, psychedelia, and hard rock. Together with fellow Portlandians The Wipers they preceded and influenced grunge: despite never becoming famous, they enjoyed cult status in The Northwest, and many Seattle grunge bands acknowledge them as an inspiration. But the story of Cole begins way back in the mid 60's when he dropped out of high school to play rock'n'roll with his band The Weeds. 

Intending to drive to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft, they ran out of gas in Portland where Fred (then 19) met and immediately fell in love with Toody, whom he married and with whom he was inseparable until his death. Renamed as The Lollipop Shoppe, The Weeds played support to the likes of The Doors and Janis Joplin, and recorded an almost hit: the fantastic garage rocker "You Must Be A Witch" which was later anthologized in the influential Nuggets compilation - but after a year they called it quits. In the late 70's, while punks were discovering Fred's music through Nuggets, he formed a punk band with Toody, called The Rats. The couple spent the next 4 decades playing passionate rock'n'roll and touring together under different monikers while also running a small music business and raising a family - I remember Toody amusingly complaining during a gig "our kids are so square, they don't take drugs and they don't understand us at all". Anyone interested in their story can seek out the excellent 2006 music documentary "Unknown Passage"

In the US, Dead Moon (i.e. Fred+Toody+Andrew on drums) distributed their albums through their own label Tombstone, but in Europe they were signed by German indie label Music Maniac Records. "Dead Moon Night" is a 1990 LP compiled by Music Maniac to introduce Dead Moon to European audiences and contains material from their first 2 LPs "In The Graveyard" (1988) and "Unknown Passage" (1989). Every song included is a veritable anthem, but "Dead Moon Night" and "54/40 Or Fight" are the two rugged garage punk dynamites that always ignited onstage, with "Black September" an equally aggressive third. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, Fred can also sound pretty vulnerable ("I Tried", the terrific ballad "I Hate The Blues", the country-ish "Dead In The Saddle"). "My Escape" is another angsty song, featuring a guitar sound reminiscent of their friend Greg Sage of The Wipers. "Echoes To You" is a gorgeous folk-rock ballad, akin to Love circa 1966. "Graveyard" and "I'm Wise" have similarities to The 13th Floor Elevators, which isn't surprising seeing as Fred -one of the original 60's garage/soul screamers- was a peer to Love's Arthur Lee and The Elevators' Roky Erickson. The 2 dynamic covers here (Love's "Hey Joe" and The Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today") are also from the same period. All songs were recorded live at the Cole's residence, just like all subsequent Dead Moon LP's, then mastered in lo-fi mono and cut by Fred himself in a vintage lathe - ostensibly the one used by The Kingsmen for their '63 hit "Louie Louie". Curiously the Music Maniac reissue denotes "stereo" even though the original albums where these tracks first appeared were mono. Not that it matters, the sound is still very raw and unpolished. This LP was my first taste of Dead Moon, and I adored it - even more so after I witnessed the band live. They would produce a string of similarly great records, the only downside being a sense of repetition - if repeated awesomeness can ever be considered a downside. Alas Cole's death in 2017 (and Loomis', the year before) robbed us from the world's most authentic, passionate, truly underground, rock band. And most of us didn't even notice...

***** for Dead Moon Night, Dead In The Saddle, Echoes To You, 54/40 Or Fight, I Tried

**** for Time Has Come Today, I Hate The Blues, Graveyard, My Escape, I'm Wise, Black September, Hey Joe