Dead Moon, Echoes of the Past

Dead Moon plays garage punk rock from the ’80s. If you like The Pixies, Sonic Youth, or Adolescents, you’ll understand. Blink 182 fans or Fall Out Boy fans probably need not apply. This music is stripped-down, raw, and fundamentally black. By “black,” I mean that they share an elegiac, anti-social vibe with many “old school” punk rockers, but there’s something perhaps more deep in Dead Moon’s sound. As a Seattle band, Dead Moon played a profoundly influential role on the movement of hard rock that would come to be called grunge. Pearl Jam covered one of the songs on this compilation, “It’s OK,” during their recorded live show from Jones Beach back on August 24, 2000, exposing their roots in Dead Moon’s chaotic and melancholy sound.

Throughout this comprehensive compilation of Dead Moon material, Echoes of the Blues, jagged guitar riffs, driving bass, and crashing drums deconstruct the melody, which is moaned and yelped by singers Freddy and Toody Cole, creating an anarchic vision of life. The anthemic quality of so many of the songs on this album tap the passion of a subculture that actively seeks out human feeling and adventure through empathetic and powerful lyrics and a variety of rock n’ roll styles, making this pioneering jaunt through the world of garage-rock a must have for any punk rock archive.