From the Hymn For Her Archives— The Mix Tapes – #1

They can’t fool me! I know who they are and even though they are The Mix Tapes, they aren’t! I knew it as soon as I flipped over the CD jacket and saw the name Wayne Waxing. He took the front cover photo (though I am pretty sure those aren’t his panties, or at least pretty sure) and he also played guitar and probably a variety of other instruments. Sure, he flies under the name Skool-Ejekt here, but that’s ol’ Wayne, all right, under yet another alias. He changes names like a republican changes politics these days. And Wayne doesn’t even have a Trump to make him do it!

Yep, what we have here is two-thirds of Hymn For Her and a guy they picked up on the side of the road— fella named Reverend Rewind. Bet he isn’t even a reverend. Yeah, Lucy is there too only she calls herself Kitty Pause. Must have something to go with legal matters or something. Three musicians who have no business going into a studio in the first place. And they aren’t doing much business with this album either.

It kind of pisses me off. Fifty thousand albums out there (and that was just last month) and #1 gets lost in the shuffle. It’s better than that. It is, in fact, an album of consequence and I ought to know. Ol’ Wayne told me himself. May have even been drinking. Can’t much remember.

What I do remember are a number of tracks rolling over me like a runaway train. This album is lost, maybe, but it isn’t because of the music! This is killer stuff in a rock’n’roll John Lennon kind of way. In a power pop who-the-hell-ARE-these-guys-anyway kind of way. In a man-I’m-glad-I-listened-to-ol’-Wayne kind of way. There is some great stuff here. Like “FF/RW,” a song I would like to think Lennon could have recorded to break out of his rut back in the old days. Something about the way it’s recorded (in a very late-sixties style with super-heavy rhythm guitar and snotty background vocals. And it isn’t even the best track here. That would be reserved for “Fallin’ In Love” with its updated fifties sound, “In Your Love” and its crunchy power pop punch (and Kitty’s laugh-out-loud faux pas (when she sings out of place— “in your…fuck!”) along with Ejekt’s blistering lead guitar work, “In & Out” and its superb semi-psych/punk take, and the capper— “Hallucinations,” a groove-laden step beyond the mind.

The Mix Tapes would probably tell me that the albums failure has as much to do with their lack of promotion as anything and they would be right. So I am taking it upon my own shoulders to spread the word. This would have been on my Top Ten list of 2015 if I had been smart enough to have listened to it then. Damn me! Less naps, more music!   

Seriously, if you have ever even had any feelings for Maggi Pierce & EJ’s music or Hymn For Her’s, this is a no-brainer. I love this album. I take it with me on drives. I put it in the player when I’m bored. Hell, I wash dishes to it! Should tell you something. And it isn’t that I’m crazy. I may be one of the few sane people left in the world. I mean, I have this album, don’t I? And I’m digging it! ‘Nough said. 

Well, not quite. You can sample the songs on their cdBaby page. Just click here. Youre’ welcome.