THE BOB- MAY/JUNE 1987- Issue 30-
THE FERRETS- ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS
Jargon Records
Just before the Invisible Party split up, drummer Jim Huie began making
some solo recordings with guitarist Chaz Lockwood. The fruits of this musical
tree began to grow and soon was a full-time project for Chaz and Jim when
they weren't busy with other bands. Their debut album highlights their singing
and songwriting skills and is much more than just a "solo" project.
Things start off with Chaz's "I'm a Problem", which turns teenage
frustration into a Stooges-like grind. Frustration continues with Jim's
"Can't Get Thru" and is followed by a funky, swinging version
of the Stones' "Play with Fire". Side one ends with an old Invisible
Party favorite, "Fear of Love", with biting lead guitar work.
On side two, check out the Byrdsy intro to Jim's "She Was Unkind".
Chaz's masterful single, "You Don't Know My Mind Anymore", resurfaces
again and another Chaz tune, "Glinting In the Sun", recalls Jon
Richman's early '70's primitivism. Jim recalls his painful life on "Wasting
My Time"-- a twelve-string electric/acoustic opus that reminds me of
the Windbreakers. ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS is an interesting look into the musical
minds of this dynamic duo.---PAT THOMAS
FORCED EXPOSURE #12- Summer, 1987-
FERRETS- ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS-
... the dumb yup-apologist liner notes on this talk about "folk-rock
pushed to its limits". The best parts here, though, are folk-rock kept
well inside its limits. "Play with Fire", "Treat Yourself
Right", and "She Was Unkind" are seemingly done by a band
highly aware of what they are doing, and happy just to be doing it right.
Best strummer in a while.---BYRON
ROCHESTER'S- SCENE- JUNE 1987-
FERRETS- ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS-
Humorous themes at work on this one. "She Was Unkind", "Record
Man", (is this one about Jim?) and "I'm A Problem", especially
"I'm A Problem" sounded surprisingly reminiscent of early Stooges
with the lead vocal definitely modeled after the beloved Ig. But don't be
fooled, the back up vocals hit and you're helpless-- flung into Partridge
Family (with a clearly mock-out edge). Satire, satire.
The reviewer sincerely hopes the FERRETS achieve the commercial success
they so earnestly desire.
FREETIME- JULY 1-15, 1987-
FERRETS- ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS-
Some bands defy definitions, a label with which you can make somebody who
has never heard them before get an idea of what they sound like. These guys
seem to delight in that, because, despite listening to ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS
several times, one would still have to call it unique. Drummer Jim Huie
trades vocals with guitarist Chaz Lockwood throughout the LP, utilizing
several guest musicians on the various cuts of the LP. The FERRETS' music
has a prominent garage sound, if you still insist on a label. The lyrics
lash out at the Establishment (we still use that term, don't we?) with a
cynical approach to the subject. If you still need help understanding what
these guys are all about, read Huie's liner notes on the back cover.--MIKE
PAZ
TIMES-UNION, ROCHESTER, N.Y., Friday Evening, JUNE 12, 1987-
POP MUSIC- by STEVE DOLLAR-
FERRETING OUT THE ORIGINALS
FROM THE IMITATIONS
ON LOCAL VINYL-
Yipes! If it's true that what goes around comes around, then Rochester's
much-maligned music scene seems once again to be rearing its sleepy noggin.
The number of local nightspots booking adventurous (or at least original)
new bands has grown, bar-owners have figured ways to stage all-age shows--
and get under-21 fans through the door-- and the groups themselves have
proliferated like weeds in a wet ditch.
A recent Thursday night at the "Idol's Vinyl" competition, an
ongoing battle of the bands sponsored by the downtown club, offered a mixed
but vital bag of tricks: Some bands you'd never heard of, some bands you'd
never want to hear again. But there was an enthusiastic crowd-- healthier
than some for the club's "name" attractions-- and inklings of
a local rock community that's been dormant since Scorgie's stopped booking
acts like the Ramones and became Yuk Yuk's.
This alleged renaissance hasn't been limited to the club scene . It extends
to the record racks as well, with a flurry of new releases by Rochester-based
bands on fledgling independent or homegrown labels.
One such label, Dave Anderson's Jargon, appears intent on cornering the
city's garage-rock market. Three new albums, distributed by New York's grunge-obsessed
Midnight Records, tap an erratic but energetic batch of groups in an attempt
to capture a "Rochester" sound.
That's the good news. The bad news about BONE IN ROCHESTER, a Jargon sampler
of 13 local rock acts, is that it's never comprehensive enough. The songs
are so exclusively devoted to reviving the patented stylings of '60s rock
that it's often hard to hear what's original about the bands that perform
them.
Agreed, Jargon has a special interest in the glories of fuzz 'n' feedback
for their own sake. And at their best, groups such as the FADEAWAYS ("Trust")
and the YOUNG IDEA ("My Baby's In Love") recall the naive joy
of picking up and bashing at a guitar for the first time-- even when striving
to replicate the standardized pop emotions of their favorite '60s singles.
But it's all so... moldy.
By contrast, both the RUMBLES' "Dictator" and the CHINCHILLAS'
"Love and War" manage compelling riffs in more contemporary styles,
the former marked by Lanay DePalma's abrasive guitar, the latter by Peter
Presstone's bittersweet melodic lines. Yet, both tunes could use more punch;
they sound too wispy.
ABSOLUTE GREY indulges in more revivalism on "Getting Me Down".
The tune's uncut psychedelica, but the swirling guitars cast a hypnotic
spell that makes the Haight-Ashbury pretensions personable. (The band's
latest release, the six-song EP, PAINTED POST, drops raga noodling for atmospheric
folk).
Two other groups on BONE-- the FERRETS and LOTUS STP-- have their own debut
albums on Jargon. While both are as derivative as anything on BONE, there's
ample personality-- musical quirks, implacable whining-- to give songs a
shape of their own.
Guitarist Chaz Lockwood, who pulls double duty as a member of both outfits,
supplies loads of these ephemeral qualities; he's a walking encyclopedia
of riffs and shadings, which he gleefully looted from the collective pop
unconscious.
On LOTUS' MILLION $ RING, Lockwood's fluid fretwork underscores the band's
attempt to fuse rhythmic wallop with old-fashioned garage swagger. While
vocalist Stan Merrell does his best to emulate a mutant Alex Chilton, Lockwood
makes it all sound effortless.
Witness the collision of chicken-scratch rhythm with surf's-up instrumentals
on "Do You Remember?" Or "Taxman" riffs piling into
the fractured, Tom Verlaine-style solo of "Broke Down". Or the
doomy, folk-rock intro of "Voices", which conjures the circular
guitar patterns favored by the Byrds and R.E.M., then dives headlong into
something else.
It's all uncommonly intricate, and a little out-of-kilter-- like the weird
toy piano plunking that opens "Union" or the edgy bass part that
nudges "Voices" into pandemonium.
ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS, which pairs Lockwood with RUMBLES' drummer Jim Huie,
is a joke of a title. But it's a good joke.
The photo on the album cover suggests a couple of adolescent losers, ready
to take their revenge on the world by retreating to the studio. The screed
on the back cover-- "Chaz, Jim and the Yuppies on Acid"-- confirms
that assumption.
"It's been a long climb out of the stinkhole of post-adolescent depression
and irresponsibility to this moment of finally putting out a full-lenght
hunk of vinyl...", writes Huie, the duo's resident crank. The Sisyphean
effort yields some inspired silliness, even for a band that got its start
doing folk-rock versions of Neil Diamond's grooviest schmaltzed-out hits.
Lockwood's "I'm a Problem" mocks the notion of starched-collar
manhood whenever he slips into a ridiculous falsetto, later reprised on
Huie's romantic lament, "She Was Unkind"-- complete with warming
folk-rock filigrees.
The real surprise here is "Glinting In The Sun". Lockwood's idea
of a country-rock shuffle, it offsets absurdly off-beat singing with a lazy
rolling guitar suggestive of J.J. Cale or the Grateful Dead.
The story of a man fleeing a car wreck-- well, who knows?-- "Glinting..."
offers the following as insprirational verse:
"I took the summer train, out to Poughkeepsie
Out until the tracks had turned to weeds
Well I slumped down in my chair
and I ruffled up my hair
In my old clothes and my no-o-o-o-o-se began to bleed."
Maybe it's a curse. The FERRETS' more earnest attempts to evoke various
'60s archetypes, or get even with mom/old girlfriends/ would-be-girlfriends-who-snub-them,
don't carry much weight. The album's production, speckless but flat, adds
none of the aural ballast these tunes so desperately.
Either way, now that Chaz and Jim are writing their own songs you can bet
Neil Diamond is relieved.
(With a photo captioned: "The FERRETS, Chaz Lockwood and Jim Huie,
look at life like a couple of adolescent losers, ready to take revenge on
the world by retreating into a recording studio. ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS confirms
that assumption.")
THE BOB- Issue 30- MAY-JUNE 1987-
FERRETS- ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS-
Just before the Invisible Party split up, drummer Jim Huie began making
some solo recordings with guitarist Chaz Lockwood. The fruits of this musical
tree began to grow and soon was a full-time project for Chaz and Jim when
they weren't busy with other bands. Their debut album highlights their singing
and songwriting skills and is much more than just a "solo" project.
Things start off with Chaz's "I'm a Problem", which turns teenage
frustration into a Stooges-like grind. Frustration continues with Jim's
"Can't Get Thru" and is followed by a funky, swinging version
of the Stones' "Play with Fire". Side one ends with an old Invisible
Party favorite, "Fear of Love", with biting lead guitar work.
On side two, check out the Byrdsy intro to Jim's "She Was Unkind".
Chaz's masterful single, "You Don't Know My Mind Anymore", resurfaces
again and another Chaz tune, "Glinting in the Sun", recalls Jon
Richman's early '70s primitivism. Jim recalls his painful life on "Wasting
My Time"-- a 12-string electric/acoustic opus that reminds me of the
Windbreakers. ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS is an interesting look into the musical
minds of this dynamic duo.-- PAT THOMAS
(With a photo of the band captioned: "Various members of the Rochester
Mafia.")
TIMES-UNION-
THE ONLY THING HARDER THAN BEING A TEENAGER
IS BEING THE PARENT OF ONE-
...Charles Lockwood has no such worries about his image.
"I've had the same haircut since I was 4. I've never had more than
a $6 haircut," said Lockwood, a clerk by day and a guitarist with local
rock bands, the FERRETS and LOTUS STP, by night.
"People say I look like Ernie from "My Three Sons", he said.
And with his glasses and pudding-bowl haircut, he sort of does. Lockwood
didn't know if that made him a nerd, but it didn't make him Big Man on campus,
either.
"I always sat at the lunch table that was the least exclusive,"
he said. "I totally despised it."
While attending (now defunct) Mendon Center Junior High School and, later,
Pittsford Sutherland High School, Lockwood took up such hobbies as rock
collecting, model rocketry and the acquisition of wax dinosaur replicas.
"To amuse myself, I'd make volcanos out of baking soda and vinegar.
That would entertain me for hours", Lockwood said.
He had some success in sports. "I won games of dodgeball by default",
Lockwood said. "I was always the only kid unnoticed in the corner."
Lockwood finally won some attention after he learned to strum guitar and
formed a band, the Arctic Surfari. The group competed at a high school talent
show, playing Lockwood's song, "Surfin' on the Barge Canal".
The band lost, but Lockwood felt the event was the start of "a 180
degree turn. Now I socialize and carouse. In high school I was mute."
"But that's OK", Lockwood added. "Buddy Holly was a nerd,
too."
(With a photo captioned: "Charles Lockwood, now a rock guitarist.")
FERRETS -ANGRY YOUNG FERRETS
RUTA 66 - NOV 1987
(SHORT REVIEW OF THE LP)