The Tree

Reviews

Mal Thursday / Neal Ford & the Fanatics / The Tree Every Night a New Surprise / No Good Woman 7″

I am 100% perplexed by the existence of this record. A current garage rock singer MAL THURSDAY inserts his vocals on two ’60s recordings—one unreleased and one released. Why? I am guessing because someone found the tape of this unfinished 1966 version of “Every Night a New Surprise” by the songwriter Steve Ames’s band NEAL FORD & THE FANATICS (you might know the song from the MOVING SIDEWALKS’ version on the B-side of their “Need Me” 7″) and wanted to finish it. Ego, convincing or whatever got MAL THURSDAY to sign up for the job. The recorders and mixers do a decent job blending the vocals in with the music, but as expected something is a bit off. THURSDAY has a tough-guy-type voice that doesn’t meld that smoothly with these ’60s musical sounds. Yes, that’s a picture of THURSDAY from 1966 photoshopped into the band photo on the cover. For the B-side “No Good Woman,” the original 1967 vocals are removed and replaced with THURSDAY’s. Since I know this song too well, the vocals don’t sound right. Again, I’ll ask: Why? Why not simply record the songs with your own band? This is titled Karage Vol. 1 so we have more of these to look forward to?