5 out of 5

Label: Shangri-la Records

Produced by: Davis McCain, Doug Easley, Scott, Tripp (mixed by)

Goddamn I miss the Grifters. I know I got tired of them in totality – something about the full albums never quite demanded my repeat listens – but in little clumps at a time, damn. Their raw, rootsy rock really taught me a lesson in how bands could sound noisy as hell playing “standard” rock, and whenever I chance on a single like this one, it makes me take a tour through their discography once more.

Thumbnail Sketch, the B-side, looks to be a Band Called Bud song – the pre-Grifters version of the band – but I don’t have the original for comparison. It’s a perfect B-side, though, just stripped down guitar, bass, drums, vocals, at the kind of loping pace of a “calm” Grifters track; a toe-tapper.

Corolla Hoist, later on One Sock Missing, is also a toe-tapper, but it’s drum fill breaks and riffage set it on the heavier side, going through a few rounds as it builds up and up to a fade out – it starts out with that same loping vibe but you hear frayed edges in the vocals, and it gets more impassioned as it goes along. Worth noting that this sounds like a different recording than on OSM. Maybe it’s a different master, but the tracks are pretty distinct – the album version has a kind of overdriven conclusion that I frankly think the song works better without, and also includes some extra vocal and sample layers that are stripped away here. I… prefer this version, and if you’re a OSM fan, it’s worth grabbing this single.