Mal Thursday

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?

Mal Thursday Mal Thursday’s Greatest Hits That Missed CD-R

Part two of my series of MAL THURSDAY release reviews. This CD-R from 2018 is a collection of THURSDAY’s bands the MALARIANS (his 1980s band), MAL THURSDAY AND THE CHEETAHS (his 1990s band), the MAL THURSDAY QUINTET (his 2010s band) and plain old MAL solo (origin somewhere in between). Beside being a singer, THURSDAY has also run a record label Chunk Records, booked shows and DJed on various radio stations and websites. THURSDAY’s vocal style is macho braggadocio. The music leans toward the harder rock side of the garage rock revival. It works together when the songs are faster and higher energy. Some of the slower ballads seem to be reaching too much and “What’s Up Pussycat?” was not an appropriate cover choice. When the songs do click, like on “Get Outta Dallas!” and “A Taste of Five,” it can be some stomping rock’n’roll fun.