Touted as "a dozen plus musicians working under the ultra-illuminating musical genius direction of ((Bi-Polar)) Ben Spangler," The Touchers debut album is essentially an epic demo session that captures them at fiddling with sounds built around catchy strums and lyrical hooks that are wildly experimental, punkadelic as hell, and prone to fits of sudden outbursts and giddiness. Unlike any of their future albums, this one features over a dozen session players including female vocals, keyboards and violin amidst echoing drums, throbbing bass and distorted guitars.
The beginning of producer Chuck Goodwin's (very unofficially titled) "Strictly Bozeman" Trilogy (recorded, mixed and mastered entirely in Bozeman, MY by said Mr Goodwin), and the first Touchers album to feature their distinctively tight band assault (as opposed to the almost friendly jam sessions of Headless Breakfast). With a "definitive" lineup in place - lead guitarist Chris Donahue (aka Donnie Evil) firmly in place to twang a guitar line into slithery perfection, and a crisp rhythm section in Keith Martinez (drums) and Brent "Blue" Maciulski (bass) - Ben sings and screeches his way through fierce, frantic Pixies-pop fury or somber, sadistic acoustic meditations that would make Steve Earle swoon - an early crystallization of their indie rock fury and honky tonk swagger.
Apparently recorded in the span of a day (in the same order as the songs appear on record), The Shotgun features four smoking-hot new renditions of previously recorded songs, giving them the same blistering hot soulful country punk rockin' that accompany the new batch of tunes. The mix of new and old material, all coalescing into a more fully-formed wall of snarls and sounds, is as invigorating as a studio recording can get when it comes to hearing a band's tightly-executed fury match its live incarnation (even more so than Live Below, their first and only official live release).
Ben wrote so much material in such a quick amount of time that when he was ready to hit the studio to record Pretty Baby he had over two dozen songs ready to lay down. Still somehow less than an hour, Pretty Baby features 26 tracks of entirely new, never-before-released jams that highlight the band at their biggest and most diverse sound yet. Chuck Goodwin's recording got cleaner and sharper, while the songwriting contains some of the band's filthiest riffs and darkest melodies amidst brighter and crunchier pop-leaning tunes.
Originally slated to be released as The Long Goodbye, Ben's blend of songwriting and screaming had gotten the attention of producer Jack Endino, so they recorded 17 songs in his studio in Seattle. Ultimately whittling the final product down to 13 cuts at just under a half an hour, The Underwater Fascist feels like a bast of hot, hot heat. Half new songs, half new version, many at their most incendiary, all of them interesting in how far Ben was trying to stretch his signature sound. Mr Endino's production and mixes capture what's so deafening yet so uplifting about hearing Ben strum and shriek his songs like there's no tomorrow.
The posthumous album, recorded and finalized before Ben died. After giving his band members the boot and then recruiting a new lineup (the drummer, bassist and guitarist for fellow Bozemanite band Eightrack Mind), they recorded 14 more tracks before Ben moved on to the next plane of existence. More of the half new/half old routine, resurrecting (and arguably besting) some Touchers classics, from recent Pretty Baby/Underwater Fascist sessions and even going as far back as their Headless Breakfast days. Even with the new band, and recording and mixing handled by Jack and Chuck both, it's still solely Ben's world we're playing in, and while he may no longer be with us, Senor Spangler ensured with Blithe that every Touchers album was a great album.