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TOUCH THE UNCLEAN THING reviews


original cover

NEW GANDY DANCER
The World's Longest Running Rock Instrumental Magazine
Issue # 48 11/96
DOC & THE PODS Touch The Unclean Thing 7" Vinyl EP Ho-Ho Records USA
What a tidy little band! Jolly, super fast vocal on Brenda Lee's Sweet Nuthins before a delicious Ventures styled instrumental JetPack full of good chord changes and intricate little guitar touches, tuneful and solid with clever drums, bass and lead of course, but a word to the neat rhythm guitarist too. Mechanised Surf is speedy too, a 12 bar, clean sound from the band with some bloody silly crash/bang breaks which adds real fun to a Batman-like riff. Chimps is another amazing little chasing cut a bit like The Spotnicks in fact - and I bet you've never heard a US band sound like The Spotnicks. Great fun and refreshing workout from a good little band. **** (Davy)


reissue cover
THE BOB
Issue #31 Sept.-Oct.1987
DOC AND THE PODS
Touch The Unclean Thing EP
Ho Ho Records
Doc does it all well: Retro rocker drenched in snarling vocal and stinging guitars ("Mr. Nobody"); manic instrumental ("Chimps"); straight-ahead rocker ("Sweet Nothing"); surf ("Jetpack"); and a new wavey thing ("Mechanized Surf"). This band has THE best rock guitarist in the U.S. underground, period. Brash, melodic and at times so fast he may even rival early Dave Edmunds. The drummer is no slouch, either. With this abundant talent, their only need is for a focused songwriting approach. As fun (and funny) as this record is, I believe Doc And The Pods capable of some "serious" rock efforts.  -Greg Beaudoin

MAXIMUM ROCK AND ROLL
1987
DOC AND THE PODS - "Touch the Unclean Thing" EP
Surf, '60's pop, psyche, all rear their ugly heads here. It's OK, inoffensive stuff but nothing to do a double-take over. If you're gonna go back to the past for inspiration at least re-emerge with some idea of what decade we do live in. These guys coulda done for Brenda Lee's "Sweet Nothins" what THE SAINTS did for Connie Francis' "Lipstick On Your Collar". (TY)

HYPER-TENSION
1987
DOC AND THE PODS - Touch the Unclean Thing 7" EP (HoHo)
Like the Grab Bag EP before it, this 5-tracker shows the Pods to be doing better things w/the late-'60's garage sound than most of the groups who invented it, which is a pretty undeniable way to justify a retro fixation...Actually, I had hoped they'd've progressed a bit more, but the snappy lead gtr work shuts me up when I get thinkin' that way...Concludes w/a mucho splendid instrumental tagged "Chimps," and has the following on the sleeve: "Recently, Jane Goodall reversed her earlier opinion of chimps, revealing them now to be brutal murderers and gang rapists..." I happen to have heard Dr. Goodall speak on NPR's "Live at the National Press Club" show two weeks ago, and I don't remember hearing that part, but I guess I wasn't payin' close attention....




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