Day 202.

Primal Scream: ok ok this is an oldie, but it has just appeared on Youtube!! My friend Richard from The Suncharms shared with me the first ever Primal Scream television appearance! It dates from January 1987 on the Channel 4 program “Down the Line”.

Family Mart: the Austin, Texas, combo has a new song up on Soundcloud and it is really good! It has a good title as well, “My Anarcha-Feminist Crush” and I must say it sounds great. I’m hooked. Somehow it reminds me to Aerospace, a favourite of mine.

Margarita Quebrada: now we go to Valencia to check out this post-punky band that reminds me of the great Barcelona band El Último Vecino. Margarita Quebrada sounds a bit more lofi though, more DIY if you want. Their latest release is “Luces” a 5 song EP that is available on Bandcamp.

Plush Palace: Cuties from California. That’s how Diz, Viggy and Eric describe themselves. They have recorded 4 twee crash pop songs and put them up on Bandcamp, perhaps these are their first ever songs? The self-titled EP has “First Date”, “Stairs”, “Fake Fucking Liar” and “Cluelessness” and I have to say they are good fun!

Lunatics on Pogosticks: new song by this Melbourne band that I know nothing about really! The song is called “Don’t Need Sunshine” and is the first one they publish since September 2017!

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Witch-hazels or witch hazels are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with four species in North America, and one each in Japan and China . The North American species are occasionally called winterbloom. The name witch in witch-hazel has its origins in Middle English wiche, from the Old English wice, meaning “pliant” or “bendable”, and is not related to the word witch meaning a practitioner of magic. Jacob George Strutt’s 1822 book, Sylva Britannica attests that “Wych Hazel” was used in England as a synonym for wych elm, Ulmus glabra; The use of the twigs as divining rods, just as hazel twigs were used in England, may also have, by folk etymology, influenced the “witch” part of the name.

Witch Hazel hailed from Kent, Ohio. At some point in the late 90s they would change their name to The Witch Hazel Sound though they also called themselves The Witch Hazel Sound with Strings. I prefer the shorter name myself. So I’ll use that while I investigate this great band whose song I like the most is actually the first one they released on vinyl, “Just Don’t Try”. And yes, this 7″ I do have it!

As I was saying the first release was a 7″ in 1993. Released on their own Bubblegum Smile Records (this label would later release in the year 2000 a compilation called Tape Op, more on that later), this record had just two songs, “Just Don’t Try” on the A side and “Plain” on the B side. Both songs were recorded at Uneven Tracks in Kent, Ohio, and mixed at Electro-Sound Recording Studios in the same city. The credits include Mike Crooker on bass, keyboards, guitar and string arrangements, Brian Barris on drums, Kevin Coral on guitar, percussion and keyboards, Ray Carmen on tambourine and Mark F. on vocals. We also know that Greg D. Feezel was the engineer, Gerard Dominick (from the bands In Fear of Roses and Indian Rope Burn) coordinated the sleeve which was designed by Kevin Coral and Mike Crooker, Feezel, Coral and Crooker mixed the songs and The Sampo Quartet helped with the strings. The producers were Mike and Kevin.

That same year the band would release another song, “Cough Syrup”, that would be included in a split 7″ with The Mommyheads. It was released by Sonic Swirl Records (SWIRL 002). This song was produced by Kevin and Mole and was mixed at Electro-Sound Studio as well.

Then we have to fast forward a bit. 1995. That year they release the “Beeswax EP” on Go Go Records (GGO 005). This 7″ would include three songs. The A side would have “There’s Always Vanilla (Requiem for Baby Blue)” and “Now (Fear Stalks the Cape)” while the AA side had “Secrets of the Spider World”.  The band at this point had Mike Zee (also called Mike Split) as the bassist. Interestingly enough Mike Crooker doesn’t seem part of the band anymore though he did produce “Now (Fear Stalks the Cape)”. Or maybe Mike Crooker started calling himself Mike Zee or Split?

That same year the band would release their first album, “Landlocked”, on Flydaddy Records (FLY014) on CD and vinyl. Both versions had twelve songs, “Gone Tomorrow”, “Chinese Apples”, “Secrets of the Spider World”, “Honey Stick”, “Blonde on Blonde”, “Lemon Grove Kids”, “Rosewater Crescent”, “Autumnal Void”, “Pink Grapefruit Cocktail”, “Peking Opera Blues”, “Hideous Sun Demo” and “Do You Dig Worms?”. For some reason I find these song titles very colorful. All songs were engineered and mixed by Scott Bennett who had been a keyboardist in Brian Wilson’s band.

In 1997 the band contributed the song “Farewell to Cheyenne”, an Ennio Morricone cover, to the compilation 7″ “The Toastier Leper Camp Co. EP” released by Ptolemaic Terrascope (POT 22). They shared the 7″ with Roy Montgomery, Tangle Edge and Silver Apples. I believe Ptolemaic Terrascope was a magazine and this was their 22nd issue from January 1997.

1998. The release of the mini-album “It’s All True”. At this point they change their name to The Witch Hazel Sound with Strings. Why? I suppose they added strings. But is that reason enough? In any case the mini-album had 6 songs, “The Libertine Revisited”, “Fontaine”, “Pacific/Atlantic”, “The Secret Grave Girl”, “Hawthorne” and “Frank’s Dream”. It was released by Camera Obscura (CAMO12CD) in Australia (?!). That same year SpinART records would include the song “Just Don’t Try” on the compilation “LemonLime Volume Two… A Pop Compilation” (Spart 40) under the name Witch Hazel.

The year 2000 would see them participating in three compilations. The first would be on “Popular World” released by Sky Blue Records (001) with the song “Fritz Lang in America”. Here they used the name The Witch Hazel Sound. Now they added the Sound again. And so they would add the Sound one more time for the song “Stephanie Said” included in their own Bubblegum Smile Records release “Tape Op”. Lastly on Camera Obscura’s double CD comp “The Serotonin Ronin II Compilation” they would have their songs “Hawthorne” and “Sketches of the Insane”.

In the year 2001 the band would release their last album “This World, Then the Fireworks…”. This record was to be released by Hidden Agenda Records (AHA!028) and would include 12 songs: “Music Becomes Vibration”, “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her”, “Fireworks”, “Providence”, “Blue City”, “Sun Horse Moon Horse”, “The Guild of Splinters”, “Kiss Tomorrow”, “Halo of Brass”, “Kiss Me Monster”, “Ballad of Constance Money” and “The Boy With Green Hair”. It is worth noting that 3 years later, in 2004, this album was to be re-released in France by Euro Visions (EURO 006). This new version with new artwork would include three more songs, “For Isabelle Huppert”, “Black Friday” and “The Man Who Invented California”.

“Music Becomes Vibration” would be included in the 2001 compilation “Parasol’s Sweet Sixteen, Volume Four”.  That same year “The Man Who Invented California” was included on Dreamy Records’ “A Wish on a Star” (rem017CD).

In 2002 the band would contribute to “Dream Magazine 3” the song “To Isabelle Huppert” and also “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her” to the CD comp “Parasol’s Sweet Sixteen, Volume Five” by Parasol Records.

“Music Becomes Vibration” would appear on another compilation in 2003. This one was called “Carnivals, Cotton Candy, And You” and was released by Orange Sky Records and Dionysus Records (OS2208). “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her” would be on the 2005 comp “Monster CD No. 10” released by Rock & Folk (RF10) and “Just Don’t Try” would show up on 2010’s “Tiny Idols Volume III” released by Snowglobe Records (SG12).

So that is all for releases. What about other involvement with bands. We know Mike Crooker was on Elliptical and Indian Rope Burn, Ray Carmen was on Librarians with Hickeys as well as releasing under his own name, Kevin Coral has done a lot of production work as well as being in the band Future Children.

What more can we find? We know that the band started in 1992. Then I find this Bandcamp where it just lists a first ever compilation of the best songs of Witch Hazel covering the period from 1993 to 2001. There is no more information about it, and if it was ever released. It looks that this Bandcamp was put together as a cassette label by Kevin Coral and Jason Richardson, former band mates in the last edition of The Witch Hazel Sound.

So I look for Jason Richardson. He has a website. He seems to be a screenplay writer these days.

The book Alternative Rock by Dave Thompson mentions them too. Here he mentions that the band was formed from the ashes of Second Skin, a gothic synth-drum machine band that had Kevin Coral and Mike Split. It also mentions that Kevin Coral would put together his own recording studio, Waterloo Sound.

And that’s it! Not much more info, but that was quite interesting, wasn’t it? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Witch Hazel – Just Don’t Try