LOS WALKERS s/t '68 LP Brazil WILD garage punk psych

$

67

Original Brazilian pressing of Los Walkers’ 1968 self-titled LP on the Fermata label.  GREAT Spanish garage psych here – this album catches them right before the much heralded “Walking Up” LP – and I gotta tell you, THIS one’s better!  It’s rawer, punkier and more savage – something these guys were always better at anyway.  But yet “Walking Up” gets all the attention, undoubtedly because of the trippy Magical Mystery Tour style cover art.  But myths are meant to be deflated, and “Walking Up” sounds limp and panty-waisted compared to the younger and snottier band here.  It’s like comparing “Roger the Engineer” to “Little Games”…”Get the Picture” to “Emotions”…”Aftermath” to “Between the Buttons”…you get the point.  In fact, it’s easy to see who Los Walkers were listening to, and inspired by, just by checking to see who they cover – roaring through the Yardbirds “Lost Women”, the Blues Magoos “Tobacco Road” and Them’s “I Can Only Give You Everything”.  Classic punkers all.  I love how they borrow from each, but then mix and match the parts as if songs were Garanimal ensembles.  “Lost Women” gets the extended freakout break from the Blues Magoos version of “Tobacco Road”, coupled with an “Interstellar Overdrive” freeform guitar (and every bit as trippy too).  While Los Walkers’ version of “Tobacco Road” closes with a bizarre outer space synth coda that sounds like the Andy Griffith theme if Mayberry were a planet in the Aldebaran system.  The band rips and snorts through “I Can Only Give You Everything” even nastier than Van the Young Man, with a killer “Gloria” riff and punishing jackhammer drums.  That being said, their butchering of the original English lyrics is something to truly behold, and scratch your head about.  As far as I can tell, these are the first four lines:

“I can hear you wall how war I gone,

Yer cat, it come to doubt inside her mine,

I can only give you lubbin’ till the phone went down,

I until I leave this song until the cedar cry.”

Their cover of “Hard to Love You” (a hit for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beanie and Cecil) is catchy pounding beat pop with twangy guitar and a bit of a Motown soul feel, while the original “Silencio” shows the band has quite a knack for writing their own songs.  Fans of the Fading Yellow series of soft sunshine pop sounds will agree that “Silencio” is a lost masterpiece – beautiful low-key harmony popsike with a groovy lounge vibe and gorgeous female backing vocals, fading out to what sounds like the rumbling of a subway train.  It’s a glorious soft popsike diversion on an otherwise rough and tough garage beat album, that heralds their eventual shift to a lighter and more British sound on the slightly overrated “Walking Up” LP.  I know I’ve beaten a dead horse already, but this IS the better album, kids – catching the band at their leanest and hungriest – like a young Stones or Blues Magoos.  Basically, it all depends on whether you preferred “Aftermath” or “Between the Buttons” – if you’re a fan of the former, then trust me – you’ll be lubbin’ THIS album til the phone goes down.  Original 1968 pressing on the Brazilian Fermata label.  Flimsy cover’s in surprisingly good shape, although both front and back cover slicks have come unglued, I’m not sure they ever were glued.  Some writing on the back cover and a radio station stamp.  Vinyl has light marks, nothing deep, and plays real strong VG++.  Winning bidder pays $4.00 media mail shipping in the US, $8 air mail to Canada, $14 everywhere else.  Paypal, Bidpay, cash, checks and money orders accepted.  Please check out my other auctions for more obscure vinyl pleasures, and I will combine shipping on multiple wins.