![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/savage_young_krayolas.jpg\")
In the shady corners of rock\u2019s history, there have been more than a few retro purveyors who managed to breathe new life into well-trodden styles. Occasionally, they\u2019ve done more than bubbled under commercially: Sha Na Na and the Stray Cats are among the comparatively few who broke out in a big way.<\/p>\n
More common \u2013 but no less worthy \u2013 have been bands like the Kaisers, the Scottish group launched in the \u201880s sounding like pre-Please Please Me<\/i> beat music but with original songs. If the Kaisers have a stateside equivalent, it might well be Texas-based Krayolas. No relation at all to the Red Krayola (also<\/i> from Texas, as it happens), the Krayolas burst on the scene in the \u201870s with their own brand of punky rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Their sound wasn\u2019t miles away from that of the 101ers, a nominally \u201cpub rock\u201d band operating around the same time in England, and featuring a young Joe Strummer.<\/p>\n
But central to the Krayolas\u2019 aesthetic was some truly regional character: the band effortlessly folded in elements of Tex-Mex to its original songs. The band never hit the majors, but released a string of superb albums that continues to modern day (their most recent release of new material seems to be Tormenta<\/em> from 2013).<\/p>\n There\u2019s relatively little documentation available on the group, and much of what does exist seems drawn from the same sources. But what is known is that in 2007 the group released an archival collection, Best Riffs Only<\/i>, on its own label. That CD brought together early demos and finished recordings, documenting an embryonic \u2013 yet on hearing, fully-formed \u2013 band years before its official debut, 1982\u2019s Kolored Music<\/i>.<\/p>\n Now in late-late 2020 comes Savage Young Krayolas<\/i>. Borrowing a title from one used on a collection of Hamburg-era Beatles recordings makes perfect sense, as this set represents another look into the Texas band\u2019s earliest days. It\u2019s not clear how much of Savage Young Krayolas<\/em> overlaps with the out-of-print Best Riffs Only<\/em> \u2013 probably a good bit \u2013 but the sound quality is excellent, and the album tracks are annotated this time around.<\/p>\n Savage Young Krayolas<\/i> is all original material save a cover of the Kinks\u2019 \u201cYou Really Got Me.\u201d And while it\u2019s true that most every garage rock band has played that tune, the Krayolas\u2019 take slyly connects some dots that let keen listeners know they\u2019re students of rock. Midway through the song, they chant \u201cstronger than dirt\u201d over the signature riff. That phrase, of course — with the same two-note melodic progression \u2013 was part of a \u201860s jingle for Ajax household cleaner. And it was referenced at the tail-end of the Doors\u2019 \u201cTouch Me,\u201d a song that lifted part of the melody from the jingle and\/or the Kinks song. (The theft\/borrowing was more subtle than \u201cHello, I Love You,\u201d but that\u2019s another story.)<\/p>\n But it\u2019s the band-penned music that makes Savage Young Krayolas<\/em> most worth hearing. The group — then a pseudonymous trio of Sal Dana, Jet Bass and Freddie Herman — tears through its moody rockers with relish. The songs draw from the same well of inspiration that fired bands like Chocolate Watchband, but with a Beatles-influenced vocal harmony approach that elevates the music beyond standard-issue garage rock fare. \u201cCry Cry Laugh Laugh\u201d is as perfect a rocker as you\u2019ll ever hear.<\/p>\n The combo organ that figures into much of the Krayolas\u2019 songs is expertly employed, though the songs on Savage Young Krayolas<\/em> don\u2019t emphatically showcase the regional flavor of the band\u2019s later material. Instead, there\u2019s the Merseybeat character \u2013 with peppy handclaps \u2013 of tunes like \u201cAll I Do is Cry.\u201d It\u2019s an irresistible track, one that I\u2019ll wager Steve Stoeckel and Jamie Hoover wish they had written.<\/p>\n And like the Spongetones, the Krayolas crank out this retro-styled music in a manner so authentic that there\u2019s not a whiff of artifice about it. Sure, \u201cI Just Wanna\u201d (with guest keyboardist Augie Meyers!) employs any number of familiar riffs and melodic progressions, but they\u2019re combined in such a way that you haven\u2019t heard them before. And while \u201cAlamo Dragway\u201d will remind listeners of Los Straitjackets, it too is fresh and new in its own way. \u201cSunny Sunny Day\u201d has jaw-dropping vocal harmonies that invite inevitable comparisons to the Beach Boys.<\/p>\n To listeners new to the Krayolas \u2013 like this reviewer \u2013 as each track rolls off of Savage Young Krayolas<\/i>, it\u2019s stunning just how high quality and irresistible this music is. You, too, many find yourself wondering, \u201cWhy haven\u2019t I heard these guys before?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the shady corners of rock\u2019s history, there have been more than a few retro purveyors who managed to breathe new life into well-trodden styles. Occasionally, they\u2019ve done more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,62,65],"tags":[4407],"class_list":["post-20272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-krayolas","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20288,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272\/revisions\/20288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}