Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Big Wheel - East End (1989, Giant)

After Louisville, KY punk wunderkinds Squirrel Bait split in the late '80s, throaty vocal sorcerer Peter Searcy invested his efforts into the demonstrably more lucid Big Wheel.  The quartet subscribed to a comparatively standard rock n rule schematic, occasionally spiked with the slightly frenetic tincture of S/B...just don’t get your hopes up if you're pining for another Skag Heaven.  Frankly, Big Wheel were innocuous riff-brokers, but if you’re taken with Searcy’s singular timbre, the band infuse just enough groove into the proceedings to keep things afloat.  I'm not sure what's up with them titling a song "Metallica" that has absolutely no relevance to the band (though I have to admit, it shreds harder than anything else on here).  Bit of a head scratcher I suppose.  East End was followed up by two more Big Wheel volumes, Holiday Manor and Slowtown.

01. Bang, Bang, Bang
02. Model Home
03. Times You Need to Think
04. Big Legged Woman
05. Erect Song
06. Time of Your Life
07. Sound so Familiar
08. Body and Soul
09. Billboard Song
10. Half of Everything
11. Spanish Salsa
12. Metallica

Hear
at

18 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 15, 2017 at 7:10 PM

    writing in to offer my gratitude, not only for the tasteful morsels offered here but also your prose and wit. i'm very happy to have found Wilfully Obscure and have been imbibing hundreds of bottles of nectar here for a few years now. feeling rather rude of me to just take and take, without even saying thank you. thus here's how we offer our thanks in these parts; Terima Kasih!

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  2. spavidMarch 15, 2017 at 8:36 PM

    Thanks Termia. I'm here for the giving, you're there for the taking, so it's all good.

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  3. gelaMarch 16, 2017 at 1:01 AM

    Talking about Big Wheel:
    In the late sixties this group (from The Hague) with the same name did a nice rendition of the Creation's If I Stay Too Long. One or two ex-members of famous Dutch band Q'65 were involved, if my memories don't fool me:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQiJ5au-oMU

    Three Q'65 classics::
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVGRuD5zSa0
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxaKyFCfqKY
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y9zvZB_qTg


    gela

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  4. UnknownMarch 16, 2017 at 12:59 PM

    Terima Kasih is not a person spavid. It's how you give thanks in Malaysian.

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  5. spavidMarch 16, 2017 at 5:54 PM

    OMG. My apologies! Guess you've got another ignorant American on you hands.

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  6. BobMarch 16, 2017 at 5:54 PM

    Man, have at vinyl test pressing of this album somewhere around the house....

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  7. BobMarch 16, 2017 at 5:56 PM

    " I'm not sure what's up with them titling a song "Metallica" "
    I think that was a temp title and they never came up with a better one.

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  8. Earthdog70April 5, 2017 at 3:16 PM

    Thanks so much for this! I know they did a reunion show a couple years back and had some kind of rarities/live CD for sale. Don't think I will ever get my hands on that one!

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  9. jwhazelApril 6, 2017 at 3:32 PM

    Thanks so much for posting this. Been trying to track down BW albums for quite some time, only one more to go. I have some of Searcys later stuff from the band Starbilly (mid 90's) if you're interested. More post-grunge than BW, but still with that characteristic Searcy vocal melody.

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  10. BobApril 7, 2017 at 9:07 AM

    jwhazel, which one are you missing?

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  11. jwhazelApril 7, 2017 at 9:21 AM

    Missing Slow Town. I actually met peter a few times and he gave me the starbilly stuff but didn't have any big wheel stuff on hand. Have checked B&ME here and town and no luck either.

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  12. BobApril 8, 2017 at 10:14 PM

    Are you in Louisville? Try The Great Escape or maybe Better Days on Bardstown. I'll keep an eye open!

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  13. Dire WolfJune 1, 2020 at 3:52 PM

    Thanks dude, but the link is dead...

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  14. UnknownDecember 5, 2020 at 6:44 PM

    Hi, i am Glenn Taylor. I was the guitar player in Big Wheel. We named our songs randomly. So, for example, "erect song" was named because he says "you left me a wreck" and we jokingly said "erect" as in you left me erect. "metallica" was named just because the opening riff was kind of metal like. I think you can get all three albums on amazon or ebay. There is no live album or rarities that i am aware of. I have a copy of pretty much anything if anyone is ever interested. We are all reachable if anyone has any questions. Glenn Taylor

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  15. jwhazelDecember 5, 2020 at 7:00 PM

    Glen, do you have any way to post Slowtown? I've attempted to buy this album off amazon before only to have the sellers cancel on me. Big fan of you all's work and what you did for the Louisville music scene. I'm happy to send you some $$ for your troubles. Reach me at jwhazel [at] me [dot] com

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  16. UnknownDecember 5, 2020 at 8:03 PM

    i will make this easy for anyone that wanders down this rabbit hole. Text me at 502 341 7815. i have boxes of stuff. For now, if you go to youtube - you can search peter searcy down and or peter searcy half of anything or half of everything - can't remember which - and you can see our two videos.
    Glenn Taylor

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    Replies
    1. Dire WolfJune 15, 2021 at 11:21 AM

      Hello Glenn. Thank you for all that beautiful music.

      That's all.

      Greetings from Argentina, man.

      Delete
  17. RyanNovember 8, 2021 at 4:22 AM

    Any chance of re-up?

    ReplyDelete