Unreleased Grundies tracks

Back when I was a boy, "grundy" was a term used by some of my friends to describe a "wedgie" executed in the front (also known as a "melvin") - in other words, a common playground antic where an unfortunate victim had his underpants grabbed and pulled violently upwards. Presumably the "grund" was a bit of onomatopoeia employed to describe the sensation of pre-pubescent genitals being compressed or ground into a tight space. In any event, it's a pretty unpleasant concept and word.

I never learned how The Grundies came by their name. The band existed before I joined it, and for whatever reason, I never thought to ask about the origin of the name.

Recently I've noticed a few visitors to this blog (you notice these things when you have as little traffic as this one does) from well outside the Memphis area arriving here via a Google search for "The Grundies," which I find curious, but also kind of encouraging. The idea that a virtually unknown band could have a residual "half-life" ten times the length of its actual existence is a nice thought, and gives me some hope that there will always be freaks out there who refuse to be press-ganged into the latest corporate schlock - always in search of the unloved, the unknown, and the forgotten.

It occurred to me that my original post discussed some recordings in great detail, but that I never went back to that post to insert the actual audio files once I had successfully ripped them from cassette to mp3. Subsequently, I realised I had completely forgotten about a post in the interim, in which I pointed to these rips on MySpace, so all the commentary and track listings are already done. Nevertheless, I will repeat them here.

So here they are. I don't know if the master tapes still exist in the wake of the tragic fire at Easley-McCain Recording, so this may be as good as it ever gets. The cassette in question is a dub of the mixes from a session of seven songs nearly 20 years ago, from which the ultra-rare single "You Look Good"/"San Antonio" emerged. I have made no alteration to EQ and attempted no noise reduction. It is what it is. All performances are live with no overdubs, apart from the a cappella canon at the beginning of "Lawman," where we manage to start out in the wrong key.

Lawman (Eddie Bond, arranged by The Grundies)



Trey Harrison - guitar, vocals
Jeff Green - bass, vocals
Bob Fordyce - drums, vocals
James Enck - tenor sax, vocals

(I like the way this one very nearly collapses heading into the first chorus.)

I Found My Love in Memphis (George Clappes, arranged by The Grundies)



Trey Harrison - vocals
Jeff Green - bass
Bob Fordyce - drums
James Enck - guitar

Cowboy Song (Red Harrison, The Grundies)



Trey Harrison - guitar, vocals
Jeff Green - guitar
Bob Fordyce - drums
James Enck - bass

(This song was actually written by Trey's then-toddler son, Red)

Fire in the Driveway (bolero version) (The Grundies)



Trey Harrison - guitar, vocals
Jeff Green - bass, vocals
Bob Fordyce - drums
James Enck - guitar

Buddy Up (The Grundies)



Trey Harrison - guitar, vocals
Jeff Green - bass
Bob Fordyce - drums
James Enck - tenor sax, guitar

(This recording reflects the way we used to play this live - two instrumental fragments up front, followed by "Buddy Up," a song we wrote in Jeff's living room in about 20 minutes, as I recall.)