The Brentwoods- Singles Collection

It's weird; though I've just recently discovered the Brentwoods, my knowledge of bands with which they shared members, former members, and acquaintances stretches back nearly a decade and a half to when I picked up the Got a Record LP by San Francisco garage punkers the Rip-Offs.  The Rip-Offs played a sort of simple/poppy, style of garage rock, not too tight, but not over the top loose and wild either, and sang songs about shoplifting and spurning the advances of unattractive women.  The cover art featured the four band members standing in a line-up at the police station all dressed in black and wearing wrestling masks.  At the time, I thought that record was the be-all, end-all shit, and in fact, I still have it and throw it on from time to time.

Despite my affection for the the Rip-Offs however, my enthusiasm for their particular brand of garage punk was dealt a significant blow several years later when I came across the band from which they were descended, a much dirtier and more damaged garage band called Supercharger.  Like the Rip-Offs, Supercharger were great at penning hilariously juvenile lyrics (example: "You don't have to tell your dad / Hey, I want it bad") and great, memorable chorus hooks; unlike the Rip-Offs, Supercharger created an intensely sweaty and tinny racket which constantly sounded on the verge of completely falling apart; their instruments almost never sounded tuned in any 'proper' manor, and their vocals were much closer to the tone deaf grunts and shouts of Louie Louie than the vocal harmonies utilized by their offspring.  I was once again smitten.

The way the Brentwoods tie into all this is that after Supercharger broke up and one of the members started the Rip-Offs, the other two members started the Brentwoods.  And ironically enough, as much as Supercharger immediately blew the Rip-Offs out of the water for me, the Brentwoods have now had exactly that same effect on my opinion of Supercharger!  Don't get me wrong, I still love Supercharger (I still love the Rip-Offs too for the record), but the debauched delinquent insanity of the Brentwoods makes them sound almost tame by comparison.

In addition to their seemingly manic energy, I suppose the most immediately distinguishing feature of the Brentwoods versus the other two aforementioned bands, is their female vocalist, Patty.  Her singing is always way too high in the mix, and she sounds sort of like an eight year old professing her love of ice cream at the top of her lungs.  Beyond that, there is also a farfisa in there sometimes, and the songwriting style is actually much poppier than the Rip-Offs, but the playing and the mix are so cruddy it usually comes out sounding even too fucked up to discern. To give a bit of context, I would imagine there are plenty of pop-punkers who love the Rip-Offs, but would run screaming from the overwhelming lunatic din of the Brentwoods.  Add to the equation lyrics which are pretty much only ever about partying in the Buri Buri, an obscure neighborhood in South San Francisco, and you have a band after my own heart, and one that manages to make most other garage bands seem square.

My personal favorite record in this collection is the Go Get Bent EP, but they're all great.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize when I downloaded this gem from soulseek that all of the Brentwoods music is out of print.  This means that the "collection" doesn't actually exist in any form, so I can't provide a link for it.  It's a bummer, I know.  But, never fear, I'm not letting it go that easily; instead you can grab their only full length album, the criminally obscure, Fun in South City, which is also incredibly sick, here.  Enjoy, and I'll see you all at the Buri Buri party!