The Bachs Out of the...

The Bachs were a garage band from Lake Forest IL.

An interesting point about them is that they never released a single, but in 1968 they released an LP, Out Of The Bachs, as a farewell to their fans and each other as they either went to college or to Viet Nam. I recently received a high quality cd burn of this high dollar LP.

This record has been reissued a few times over the years, albeit in sub par sound. This burn is a copy made from an excellent quality original disc.

The album itself has a high level of charm blending a midwest sensibility with copius amounts of jangle, warbley vocals and major dollop of reverb. The vocals deliver an odd message with the originally appearing simple lyrics. No digital f ery has been employed to fix their sound. It is like they were able to contain the Mid Western moodiness and put it into song and are able to carry it off for 12 songs. Pretty amazing for five high school students from Lake Forest High School.

"Eat to to live or is that live to eat?" Minister to a Mind Disceased. There is a screaming guitar buzz that erupts in this song, and then is abruptly cut to go back into the verse. "Don't be concerned, you'll die the same... don't try to fight it, it's all in vain." and with that ends side 1.

I also like the distorted twang that appears in Nevermore. They go from jangle to fuzz and back. Not a pounder by any measure, but damn amazing.

But do they leave the best for last? Quite possibly, with the angst ridden ditty entitled, I'm A Little Boy. More snot drips from this vocal delivery than the rest of this record combined. There is also a great drum pattern that goes into a guitar break of sorts. The boys kick out the fuzz, but it moves at a relaxed pace. Kind of like this lakeside town.

Twisted poetry or high garage art. I think a bit of both. I really dig this lp. They meld folky sounds, garage and MidWestern moodiness to great success.