Tell-Tale Hearts - “Just a Matter of Time” Destination Bomp! Song released in 1985. Compilation released in 1995. Garage Rock
The Tell-Tale Hearts were an 80s band from San Diego who just wanted to revive the freewheeling and raucous sound of 60s psychedelic garage rock. A five-piece formed in 1983, they landed on Voxx Records, a label that specialized in garage rock revival and was named after the famed thick, twangy, psychedelic sound of the Vox guitar, which was used by just about every garage band in the 60s.
A write-up of an early Tell-Tale Hearts performance appears in the liner notes for their 1994 compilation, High Tide [Big Noses & Pizza Faces]. It describes both the band’s energy and fun ridiculousness:
The wild-eyed singer snarled and leapt about like a monkey, all the while shaking a pair of maracas and banging on a cow bell, wine bottle, or beer can. The drummer hid behind a relic of a kit and pounded his tom-toms like they were tribal war drums. The tall, red-haired guitarist snaked about on stage, by turns stroking and stabbing at his instrument. The organ player, his hair completely covering his face, kicked at his amplifier and rolled on the ground, wrestling with a harmonica. And the long-haired bass player sneered at the crowd from behind a pair of sunglasses, looking positively wicked.
The Tell-Tale Hearts’ second release, a 12″ EP, The "Now" Sound of the Tell-Tale Hearts, leads with “Just a Matter of Time,” a wild and jaunty throwback tune that genuinely sounds like it was recorded in the late 60s. Ray Brandes sings with an easygoing and cool demeanor, backed by Eric Bacher’s alternating simple Vox chord strikes and jangly plucks, Mike Stax’s deep electric bass plucks (which sounds more like a jazz double bass), David Klowden’s cymbal and kick-heavy drum beat, and Bill Calhoun’s somewhat subdued, but indispensable organ. Dig Bacher’s fun, surf-rockish, psychedelic solo and Klowden’s short and lonely snare segments.
60s rock, but from the 80s.
